The Nikkei 225 of Japan gained a record on Thursday due to “Takiachi trade,” with the wider Asia-Pacific markets largely rising after tech stocks drove a Wall Street surge overnight.
The Nikkei 225 increased 1.1 percent, to an all-time high of 59,199.31, extending its winning streak of record highs to a third straight session. The wider Topix gained 1.45 percent, also reaching a new high.
The Japanese government appointed Ayano Sato of Aoyama Gakuin University and Toichiro Asada of Chuo University on Wednesday as central bank board members, both dovish in their policy stance, which aligns with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s approach.
These two will replace the current board members of the central bank, who are Asahi Noguchi and Junko Nakagawa, whose terms will expire by the end of March and June, respectively.
The Japanese stocks have soared to several historical highs in recent months on so-called “Takaichi trade” as investors speculate the growth-oriented policies of the prime minister, which is seen as a continuation of Abenomics, will propel stocks and strain the yen with a looser monetary policy and higher fiscal expenditure.
However, South Korea’s Kospi soared 1.65 percent, while the small-cap Kosdaq gained 0.57 percent. The S&P/ASX 200 of Australia rose 0.8 also reaching its highest point in the early trade.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index dropped 0.62 percent, while the CSI 300 lost 0.2 percent. The Bank of Korea maintained its base rate at 2.5 percent, as anticipated by Reuters.
Asian tech shares surged after better-than-anticipated outcomes of Nvidia alleviated worries that the momentum in the artificial intelligence sector was waning. Stocks of the South Korean chipmaking giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix surged in early trade.
SK Hynix, one of the major providers of high-bandwidth memory applied in artificial intelligence to Nvidia, increased by more than 2 percent. Samsung Electronics, a long-time collaborator of Nvidia, was up approximately 5 percent.
South Korean tech stocks were also scaled up, with components manufacturer LG Innotek spiking nearly 14 percent and Seoul Semiconductor rising 13 percent. The TOPIX Information & Communication Index in Japan rose 2.6 percent, extending the growth of 0.58 percent the day before.
In the U.S. overnight, equities increased with the help of Nvidia and Oracle as the shares capitalized on the gains of the previous trading day.
The S&P 500 gained 0.81 percent to close at 6,946.13, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.26 percent to 23,152.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 307.65 points, or 0.63 percent, to settle at 49,482.15.
Nvidia released fiscal fourth-quarter earnings exceeding Wall Street expectations, driven by a 75 percent increase in revenue in its core data center segment. Shares gained 2 percent in extended trading after the release.
The firm registered adjusted earnings per share of $1.62, a figure exceeding the expectations of 1.53 recorded by analysts surveyed by LSEG. Revenue was noted to be $68.13 billion as compared to the estimated $66.21 billion.
