SYDNEY, June 26 (Reuters) - Japanese shares bounced back on Friday, tracking overnight Wall Street gains, with banks leading the rally in both markets, after U.S. regulators' decision to ease some rules allayed fears over a spike in fresh COVID-19 cases.
The benchmark Nikkei average .N225 rose 1.1% to 22,512.08, rebounding from a 1-1/2-week closing low hit in the previous sessiom. For the week, the index eked out a marginal gain of 0.1%.
Wall Street's major indexes closed higher on Thursday, with bank stocks soaring after U.S. banking regulators unveiled new rules that will make life easier for large banks with complex trading and investment portfolios. It helped to offset investor jitters over alarming increases in new coronavirus cases. .N on the upbeat wave, shares in Tokyo-listed banks also gained, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) Inc 8306.T , Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) Inc 8316.T and Mizuho Financial Group Inc 8411.T rising between 1.3% and 1.7%.
The benchmark Nikkei's heavyweight SoftBank Group Corp 9984.T advanced 3% as the tech conglomerate said after the market close on Thursday that it would buy back up to 5.75% of own shares worth 500 billion yen ($4.7 billion) through March 31, 2021. broader Topix .TOPX rose 1% to 1,577.37, with all but three of the 33 sector sub-indexes on the Tokyo exchange finishing higher.
Financial-related securities .ISECU.T , banking .IBNKS.T and other financial .IFINS.T were among the top performing sector subindexes on the main bourse.
Some retail investors bought the stocks of companies that will go ex-dividend on Monday, analysts said. Kyowa Kirin Co Ltd 4151.T climbed 2.1% and Canon Inc 7751.T added 0.5%.
Bucking the overall gaining trend, the index of Mothers startup shares .MTHR fell 0.8%, after touching its highest level since Oct. 2, 2018 earlier in the session. = 107.1700 yen)