Japan's Nikkei rallies to record high, SoftBank surges
The Nikkei 225 rose as much as 2.1 per cent to 42,715.72 in early trade, exceeding the previous high of 42,426.77 set on July 11, 2024. In a roller-coaster ride in 2024, the Nikkei had exceeded a record that had stood since 1989 during Japan's bubble economy.
Japan's broader Topix gauge has been setting successive record highs since July 24 and also scored a new all-time high on Tuesday.
The US Standard & Poor's 500 and MSCI's broadest gauge of global equities have been charting new peaks since June.
Steep gains by tech shares helped the Nikkei finally get over the line. SoftBank Group soared 6.7 per cent after Reuters reported the conglomerate was selecting banks for a US listing of its payments app operator PayPay. Semiconductor industry heavyweights Advantest and Lasertec jumped more than 5 per cent.
"The Nikkei was not able to hit a record until today because chip-related shares and auto shares dragged the index," said Takamasa Ikeda, senior portfolio manager at GCI Asset Management. "The Nikkei could soon peak as technology shares that led the Wall Street's rally have slowed down."
Global equities tumbled after US President Donald Trump's April 2 "Liberation Day" announcement of sweeping tariffs on imports from dozens of countries into the US
Shares have since more than recouped those losses as trade concerns abated and enthusiasm over artificial intelligence companies soared.
Foreign money has been flooding into the Japanese market of late, but data from the Tokyo Stock Exchange last week indicated those flows may have peaked.
Overseas investors turned net sellers of Japanese stocks and futures for the first time in 16 weeks in the period ending Aug. 1. They sold a net 342 billion yen (US$2.31 billion) of shares and futures, a sharp reversal from net purchases of 1.26 trillion yen in the previous week.
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