The Nikkei Average Index rose by 687 points or 1.4%, with SoftBank increasing by nearly 4%

Japanese stocks rose, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index reaching new closing highs, leading to widespread follow-up buying in Japanese stocks. The Nikkei average opened up 331 points and the gains expanded, rising as much as 978 points to reach 51,127 points, closing up 687 points or 1.4% at 50,836 points.

In the AI concept and semiconductor stocks, SoftBank (9984.JP) rose 3.8%, as the company considers acquiring data center operator Switch. Raytech (6920.JP) rose 0.3%, while Nvidia supplier Advantest (6857.JP) and Discus (6146.JP) fell 1.2% and 1.1%, respectively. Tokyo Electron (8035.JP) fell 3.4%, while memory chip stock Kioxia (285A.JP) rose 2.9%. Wire stocks Furukawa Electric (5801.JP) and Fujikura (5803.JP) rose 2.4% and 1.5%, while Sumitomo Electric (5802.JP) fell 0.2%.

Robot stocks Fanuc (6954.JP) and Yaskawa Electric (6506.JP) rose 5.3% and 2.9%, respectively. Heavy industry stocks Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.JP) and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (7012.JP) rose 2.6% and 4.1%, while IHI (7013.JP) rose 0.9%. JX Metals (5016.JP) rose 4.2%. Electric power stock Tokyo Electric Power (9501.JP) rose 5.5%.

In other stocks, Rakuten Group (4755.JP) fell less than 0.1%, Muji (7453.JP) fell 0.2%, Sony (6758.JP) rose 2%, Fast Retailing (9983.JP), Nintendo (7974.JP), and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.JP) rose between 2.5% and 2.9%, while Hitachi (6501.JP), Sanrio (8136.JP), and Toyota (7203.JP) rose between 4.2% and 4.8%, and Panasonic (6752.JP) rose 6.9%.

The USD/JPY exchange rate is 155.63