Japanese shares jump after two-day declines, chip stocks advance

  • Reuters
  • Stock Market News
Japanese shares jump after two-day declines, chip stocks advance
Credit: © Reuters.

TOKYO, April 22 (Reuters) - Japanese shares jumped on Thursday as investors scooped up chip-related and cyclical shares following a two-day decline across all sectors, with sentiment aided by an upbeat finish on Wall Street overnight.

The main indexes gained the most in more than seven weeks, with the Nikkei share average .N225 jumping 2.38% to close at 29,188.17, while the broader Topix .TOPX rose 1.82% to 1,922.50.

Concerns about an economic slowdown amid preparations of fresh measures to tackle the spread of the virus eroded about 4% from the Nikkei and 3.5% from the Topix index over the last two days.

"Investors are buying stocks as prices have become reasonable after declines in the past two days," said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management.

"An introduction of a state of emergency makes investors wary, but the number of new infections could fall. That might be factored into today's market."

Chip-related shares advanced, with Tokyo Electron 8035.T gaining 4.58%, Advantest 6857.T rising 4.2% and Shin-Etsu Chemical 4063.T climbing 3.45%.

Nidec 6594.T , known for making precision motors used in computer hard drives, gained 4.49% ahead of its earnings announcement on Thursday. The company is one of the first major manufacturers to disclose outlook in the earnings seasons.

Nidec was the top gainer among the top 30 core Topix names, followed by Keyence Corp 6861.T .

Shipping firms also advanced, with Kawasaki Kisen 9107.T rising 5.5% and Mitsui OSK Lines 9104.T gaining 3.81%.

The underperformers on the Topix 30 were Nintendo 7974.T , down 0.26%, followed by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group 8306.T , losing 0.16%.

There were 207 advancers on the Nikkei against 13 decliners.

Add Chart to Comment

Comment Guidelines

We encourage you to use comments to engage with users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind: 

  • Enrich the conversation
  • Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
  • Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically.
  •  Use standard writing style. Include punctuation and upper and lower cases.
  • NOTE: Spam and/or promotional messages and links within a comment will be removed
  • Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user.
  • Don’t Monopolize the Conversation. We appreciate passion and conviction, but we also believe strongly in giving everyone a chance to air their thoughts. Therefore, in addition to civil interaction, we expect commenters to offer their opinions succinctly and thoughtfully, but not so repeatedly that others are annoyed or offended. If we receive complaints about individuals who take over a thread or forum, we reserve the right to ban them from the site, without recourse.
  • Only English comments will be allowed.

Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.

Drop an image here or Supported formats: *.jpg, *.png, *.gif up to 5mb

Error: File type not supported

Drop an image here or

100
Please try another search