Japanese shares rise on AI-shares rally, dividend hunt

TOKYO: Japanese shares rose on Friday as AI-related stocks gained and investors bought ahead of Monday's deadline to qualify for mid-term dividends.

The Nikkei was up 1.23 per cent to 66,318.14 by the midday break. The broader Topix rose 1.19 per cent to 4,123.73.

"Investors picked up stocks to secure the right to dividend payouts, but moreover, the demand for chip-related stocks supported the market," said Daisuke Hashizume, a senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.

Bank shares, which typically pay higher dividends, were the top performers among the Tokyo Stock Exchange's (TSE) 33 industry sub-indexes, rising 3.23 per cent.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group rose 3.02 per cent, providing the biggest support for the Topix's gain. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group climbed 2.9 per cent.

Chip-related Tokyo Electron and Advantest rose 4.04 per cent and 2.45 per cent, respectively, providing the biggest source of the Nikkei's gain.

Ibiden, a central processing unit component maker, rose 5.6 per cent after jumping 14.57 per cent in the previous session.

Solid economic data supports the strength of technology stocks, said Daiwa's Hashizume.

"And the central banks in the United States and Japan made it clear that they would fend off inflation by raising rates, which boosted investor confidence in stocks," he said.

Technology investor SoftBank Group fell 2.63 per cent after shares of Oracle slipped three per cent overnight, following a report that Oracle issued a "force majeure" notice to a Blue Owl unit, the developer of a large New Mexico data center, citing potential delays in securing power for the project.

SoftBank is a co-investor in the "Stargate" infrastructure project together with Oracle and OpenAI.

Of more than 1,500 stocks trading on the TSE's prime market, 68 per cent rose, 27 per cent fell and three per cent traded flat.