Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average Falls a 4th Day Tech Shares Weigh, Oil Surges (UPDATE 1)

Reuters

12:34 JST, March 17, 2026 (updated at 17:00 JST)

TOKYO, March 17 (Reuters) – Japan’s Nikkei share average erased early gains to close down on Tuesday, dragged lower by losses in chip-related shares and a jump in oil prices.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index fell 0.1% to close at 53,700.39, extending its decline to a fourth-straight day. The broader Topix climbed 0.45% to 3,627.07.

The Nikkei jumped as much as 1.2% earlier in the session as a slide in oil prices overnight prompted a recovery in investor sentiment that has been battered by the ongoing Iran war. But crude prices shot back up in Asian trading, and technology shares remained weak following a presentation by artificial intelligence bellwether Nvidia.

“Investors sold chip-related stocks because there was no big positive surprise from the remarks from Nvidia overnight,” said Kazuaki Shimada, chief strategist at IwaiCosmo Securities. “The Nikkei moves inversely to oil prices these days.”

Nvidia ended 1.6% higher after CEO Jensen Huang announced new components at the chipmaker’s annual developer conference.

Advantest, a chip-testing equipment maker and supplier to Nvidia, fell 2.5% to weigh the most on the Nikkei.

Technology investor SoftBank Group lost 1.8%.

There were 166 advancers on the Nikkei index against 56 decliners. The largest percentage gainers were shipping company Kawasaki Kisen, up 6.3%, followed by drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo, which rose 5.9%.

The largest losers were suppliers to the tech sector, including Furukawa Electric, down 6.7%, followed by Sumitomo Electric Industries, down 6.2% and Lasertec, which sank 5.2%.