Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average Sinks as Tech Shares Track US Peers Lower (UPDATE 1)

Reuters

12:32 JST, December 15, 2025 (updated at 15:52 JST)

TOKYO, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Japan’s Nikkei share average dropped more than 1% on Monday as tech stocks tracked their Wall Street peers lower on lingering worries over stretched valuations.

The Nikkei .N225 slid 1.3% to end the day at 50,168.11, with artificial intelligence (AI)-focused startup investor SoftBank Group 9984.T and chip-testing-tool maker Advantest 6857.T – an Nvidia NVDA.O supplier – the biggest drags on the index by a wide margin.

The broader, less tech-heavy Topix .TOPX, by contrast, rose 0.2% to 3,431.47.

Of the Nikkei’s 225 components, risers outnumbered fallers by 130 to 94, with one share ending flat.

“This is not broad-based weakness in stocks across sectors,” said Nomura Securities strategist Fumika Shimizu.

“It feels like a sector rotation” away from the big tech shares that have performed so strongly this year, she said.

SoftBank Group slumped 6% and Advantest tumbled 6.4%, between them accounting for about 560 points of the Nikkei’s total 668-point slide. Fujikura 5803.T, another darling of the AI trade in Japan, dropped 4.4%.

On Friday, the Philadelphia SE semiconductor index .SOX plunged more than 5%, with investors leaving technology for other sectors amid concerns about an AI bubble.

In Japan, domestic demand stocks were notable beneficiaries of the exodus from tech shares. Rail .IRAIL.T gained 2.1% to be the top performer among the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s 33 industry groups. Services .ISVCS.T and retail .IRETL.T each rose more than 1.7%.

Banking .IBNKS.T climbed 2% ahead of an expected interest rate increase by the Bank of Japan on Friday, with those bets reinforced on Monday by the central bank’s quarterly Tankan survey, which showed sentiment among big manufacturers rose to a four-year high. Higher interest rates boost returns from lending and investing.