A weaker yen also boosted heavyweight exporters after falling to a record low against the euro and the lowest since February against the dollar on Thursday, after the Bank of Japan governor struck a cautious tone on keeping interest rates steady.
The Nikkei closed 2.1% higher at a session high of 52,411.34, a record peak that took the index’s gain for October to 16.6% – the biggest since January 1994.
The broader Topix rose as much as 1.4% to reach an all-time high of 3,348.06, before ending the day with a 0.9% gain at a record high of 3,331.83.
On Thursday, Amazon reported that its cloud revenue rose by the fastest pace in nearly three years, helping the company forecast quarterly revenue above estimates.
Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook issued forecasts for iPhone sales and total revenue during the holiday quarter that exceeded Wall Street expectations. Japanese chip sector shares were among the biggest gainers. Socionext rose almost 17%, while Advantest rose 3.9%, making it the Nikkei’s biggest gainer in terms of index points thanks to its heavy weighting. Data center-related artificial intelligence stocks also rose, with Hitachi rising 7.2%.
Technology stocks have been at the center of the Nikkei’s brutal rally in recent months, joining a global equities rebound fueled by sky-high expectations for AI.
Japan has had additional tailwinds this month from hopes for aggressive fiscal stimulus under new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
One of its focus areas is AI innovation, which MUFG Asset Management says means Japanese tech stocks will benefit from both global and domestic momentum.
Surpassing the 52,000 level for the Nikkei “is just a step towards the next level,” said Naoya Oshikubo, chief market economist at MUFG Asset Management.
“We have more room, like another 10% increase from now towards April,” he said. “This is not a bubble.”
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