Japan Stocks Rise for Third Day as Nikkei Closes Above 61,000

Tokyo stocks continued their upward trend on Wednesday, November 11th, reaching the 61,248.59 point Nikkei 225 benchmark as of 3:30 p.m., a 1.31% increase from Tuesday. This marks the third straight day of gains for the index. Investors bought semiconductor and artificial intelligence-related shares, despite concerns about US inflation and interest rates.

The rally began after a 1,684-point surge on Tuesday, when the Nikkei regained the psychologically important 60,000-point level after a sharp sell-off. Semiconductor-related stocks, particularly Advantest, Tokyo Electron and Ibiden, drove the rally, while TDK and Kioxia, a memory chip manufacturer, provided additional support. The Nikkei's three-day recovery now totals over 3,800 points, though it remains below its November 5th closing level.

Despite a weaker performance on Wall Street due to stronger-than-expected US consumer inflation, the Tokyo Stock Exchange's 20 industry groups posted gains, with textiles, electrical equipment, banking and nonferrous metals leading the way. The broader Topix index also rose, indicating the recovery's spread beyond semiconductor stocks.

Japan's latest corporate confidence figures showed manufacturers becoming increasingly optimistic, with the Reuters Tankan survey indicating that sentiment among major Japanese manufacturers rose to plus 27 in November from plus 22 in October. Despite these positive developments, companies still face challenges such as rising costs, higher interest rates and difficulties in passing expenses to customers.

SoftBank Group reported a net loss of approximately 1.1 trillion yen for the July-September quarter, signaling financial pressures associated with its expansion into artificial intelligence infrastructure.