Tokyo: Shares track Wall Street higher, tech shines

[TOKYO] Japanese shares snapped a 5-session losing streak on Friday (Feb 25), with heavyweight technology stocks leading the charge, as the market tracked a sharp rebound on Wall Street overnight.

The Nikkei share average ended 1.95 per cent higher at 26,476.50, but lost 2.3 per cent for the week. The broader Topix climbed 1 per cent to 1,876,24, but posted a 2.5 per cent weekly loss.

US stocks ended sharply higher overnight, led by a 3 per cent gain in the Nasdaq, marking a dramatic market reversal as US President Joe Biden unveiled harsh new sanctions against Moscow after Russia invaded Ukraine.

"Japanese market made a big reversal from sharp losses in a short period of time," Seiichi Suzuki, chief equity market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute said, adding that the rebound, however, seems to be a little too strong given declines in the Nasdaq futures.

Chip-related stocks Tokyo Electron and Advantest led the Nikkei's gains, jumping 5.79 per cent and 7.71 per cent, respectively. Technology startup investor SoftBank Group climbed 5.56 per cent and medical platform services firm M3 rose 5.37 per cent.

Shionogi & Co gained 1.74 per cent as the drugmaker has applied for approval to make and sell its oral Covid-19 treatment in Japan.

The oil explorers sub-index fell 5.82 per cent and was the worst performing sector among the 33 industry sub-indexes of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with Inpex losing 6.02 per cent.

Banks and insurers fell 2.21 per cent and 3.27 per cent respectively, after US Treasury yields fell overnight.

There were 143 advancers on the Nikkei index against 78 decliners.

The volume of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main board was 1.34 billion, compared to the average of 1.28 billion in the past 30 days. REUTERS