Japan’s Nikkei Stock Climbs for Fourth Straight Day on Wall Street Boost (UPDATE 1)

Reuters

12:11 JST, December 5, 2024 (updated at 16:20 JST)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Nikkei share average rose for a fourth consecutive day on Thursday as a record high on Wall Street overnight buoyed investor sentiment, although profit-taking capped gains.

The Nikkei closed up 0.3% at 39,395.60. The index touched its highest intraday level since Nov. 12 at 39,632.3 before paring some gains.

The broader Topix finished about 0.1% higher at 2,742.24.

All three major U.S. stock indexes scored record closing highs on Wednesday, led by technology shares, after upbeat results from Salesforce and comments by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave a late boost to the market.

Japanese tech shares tracked their U.S. peers higher, with chip-testing equipment maker Advantest rising 3.4%.

Electronics component manufacturer Fujikura climbed 3.1% amid expected demand for data centers.

AI-focused startup investor SoftBank Group was up 1.2%.

Staffing agency Recruit Holdings, up 3%, and Uniqlo parent firm Fast Retailing, adding 0.3%, were among other heavyweight shares to lift the Nikkei.

But the benchmark index struggled to push higher, with around half of its 225 constituents in the red.

“There weren’t many other factors to further drive the rise, so we saw some selling to lock in profits when the Nikkei reached the upper 39,000-point range” during morning trade, said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management.

The yen strengthened during the session, recouping most of yesterday’s losses to the U.S$..

Toyoaki Nakamura, known as one of the Bank of Japan’s more dovish board members, said on Thursday he was “not opposed to rate hikes” but the decision to raise rates this month should be data-dependent.

Investors were also positioning ahead of the closely watched U.S. jobs report due on Friday.

The largest percentage losses on the index were Japan Steel Works, down 5.4%, followed by pharmaceutical firm Daiichi Sankyo, losing 3.6%.

Calculator maker Casio Computer surged 4.6% to become the top percentage performer.