TOKYO, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Japanese shares closed higher for a
third straight session, after hitting fresh 30-year highs, as
strong corporate results and progress in vaccine rollouts raised
expectations of a quick economic recovery.
The Nikkei share average .N225 ended 0.4% higher at
29,505.93, while the broader Topix index .TOPX inched up 0.08%
to 1,925.54.
"Investors bought back stocks whose fundamentals are strong,
like chip-related shares," said Norihiro Fujito, chief
investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley
Securities.
"Airline and railway shares, which had been bought until
this morning, became a target for selling as their fundamentals
hadn't started to improve yet."
SoftBank Group 9984.T closed with a gain of 3.41%. The
stock had gained more than 5% to hit a two-decade high, driven
by its Vision Fund's record profits. Chip-related shares climbed, with Murata Manufacturing
6981.T rising 3.21%, TDK Corp 6762.T jumping 2.65%,
Advantest 6857.T adding 2.26% and Tokyo Electron 8035.T
jumping 1.9%.
Monex Group 8698.T , the owner of bitcoin exchange operator
Coincheck, surged 16.05% as bitcoin jumped after Tesla Inc
TSLA.O revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of the
cryptocurrency and would soon accept it as a form of payment for
cars. The airline sector retreated from early gains, with Japan
Airlines 9201.T falling 0.95% and ANA Holdings 9202.T losing
0.92%.
Automakers fell as the yen advanced against the dollar, with
Honda Motor falling 1.19%, Nissan Motor 7201.T losing 0.02%
and Toyota Motor 7203.T falling 0.54%.
The dollar traded at 104.85 yen JPY= , down 0.35% during
the Asian trading hours.
The underperformers among the top 30 core Topix names were
Hitachi 6501.T which fell 3.06%, followed by Daikin Industries
6367.T losing 2.50%.