Japan’s Nikkei rises after Wall Street gains, tech leaders say

Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose on Wednesday, with technology shares leading a broad rally after Wall Street closed higher overnight on rising prospects for a December interest rate cut.The Nikkei closed 1.9% higher at 49,559.07, while the broader Topix gained 2%.

Wall Street continued its rally on Tuesday after a wave of economic data appeared to support the case for the US Federal Reserve to make its third and final rate cut of the year in December, while weakness in the technology sector limited the Nasdaq’s gains.“Expectations of more Fed rate cuts lifted U.S. stocks overnight, supporting gains in the Japanese stock market today,” said Takamasa Ikeda, senior portfolio manager at GCI Asset Management.

In Japan, heavyweight technology stocks rose. Technology investor SoftBank Group rose 5.7% after falling nearly 20% in the previous two sessions.

Chip testing equipment manufacturer Advantest climbed 2% and Uniqlo brand owner Fast Retailing gained 1.8%. “As foreign investors leave for the New Year celebrations, the market will focus on smaller stocks and that will keep the market supported,” Ikeda said. Hokkaido Electric Power rose 9.3% on a report that Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki planned to allow the restart of a reactor at the Tomari nuclear power plant.

The report came after news last week that a regional governor had approved a partial restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant that was destroyed by the March 2011 tsunami.

TEPCO shares rose 4.6%.

Kioxia plunged nearly 15% after a report that buyout firm Bain Capital planned to divest $2 billion worth of shares in the memory chip maker.