Japan's Nikkei climbs after relief rally on Wall Street; tech shares slide

By Rocky Swift TOKYO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei share average climbed on Friday, heading for a third straight weekly advance and riding optimism from Wall Street between two pivotal central bank meetings. The Nikkei 225 Index (.N225) rose 0.9% to 50,610.04 as of the midday break, set to eke out a 0.2% gain on the week. The broader Topix (.TOPX) was up 1.6% after reaching a record intraday high of 3,420.57. During the pause in trading, an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.7 hit the country’s northeastern region on Friday, prompting a tsunami advisory. The S&P 500 and the Dow notched record closing highs in New York overnight after a Federal Reserve policy update that was less hawkish than expected. Japanese equities have rallied after some weakness ahead of the Fed meeting, and now attention is focused on messaging at the Bank of Japan’s policy decision on December 19, said Nomura Securities strategist Maki Sawada. “Market sentiment in the first half of the week is likely to be somewhat cautious,” Sawada said. “If (the Nikkei) recovers to 51,000, resistance at that level might become noticeable.” There were 204 advancers on the Nikkei against 19 decliners. The largest percentage gainers were Sumitomo Metal Mining (5713.T) , up 6.7%, followed by industrial fibre maker Toray Industries (3402.T) , which jumped 5.9%. Technology shares, which have soared of late on euphoria over artificial intelligence investment, were weighed down after disappointing results by Oracle (ORCL.N) . The largest losers in the Nikkei were semiconductor industry supplier Disco (6146.T) , down 2.9%, followed by chipmaker Tokyo Electron (8035.T) , which slid 2.3%. (reporting by Rocky Swift in Tokyo; Editing by Eileen Soreng)