The Japanese shares closed higher on Friday, lifted by the strong performance of AI and chip-related companies in the United States, said Timothy Pope, a market analyst for China Global Television Network (CGTN).
Tokyo stocks ended higher Friday, following robust earnings from AI- and chip-related companies in Japan and the United States.
The benchmark Nikkei stock index, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average, ended up 2,494.59 points, or 4.03 percent, from Thursday at 64,362.02.
The broader Topix index, meanwhile, finished 50.80 points, or 1.29 percent, higher at 4,003.30.
Driven by AI- and semiconductor-related shares, the benchmark Nikkei index briefly surged over 5 percent, as investor sentiment was buoyed by solid earnings reports from Microsoft Corp. and Tokyo Electron Ltd., analysts said.
"Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was up among the leaders, adding 4 percent again on the Microsoft news. A lot of the Nikkei's heavyweights are exposed to the U.S. AI and hyperscaling buildout -- Advantest up 16 percent while tech investor SoftBank added 14 percent. On the other end of things, however, on the equity market, it wasn't doing quite so well - automakers fell after reports of a currency intervention by the Japanese government to prop up the yen, which has been sitting near a 40 year low. And also the Bank of Japan surprised absolutely nobody by keeping interest rates unchanged, and saying it will be watching inflation to make sure things don't get too hot," Pope said.
Tokyo stocks plunge amid robust AI, chip earnings: analyst
Chinese stocks closed higher on Friday, due to stimulation from the newly-released US technology earnings, said China Global Television Network (CGTN) analyst Timothy Pope.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.72 percent to 3,832.26 points.
The Shenzhen Component Index closed 2.21 percent higher at 13,578.93 points.
The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 3.06 percent to close at 3,343.96 points.
"The latest U.S. technology earnings have made Chinese AI stocks whipsaw over the past couple of sessions. Before we get into that, as far as the dust is settling, the Shanghai Composite added 0.7 percent today, the Shenzhen Component rose 2.2 percent and the ChiNext gained 3 percent. And those numbers just screamed technology rebound," Pope said.
"Yesterday's sell-off was absolutely brutal after we saw the results from Meta and other U.S. technology companies reviving concerns about the hyperscalers' enormous AI spending. The worry is that they may be investing too much, too quickly, without generating returns fast enough to justify that. That punished both ends of the market: it hit the U.S. technology giants because of the scale of their spending, and it hit their suppliers in China because it cast doubt on future demand. But then we got results from Azure -- Microsoft's cloud-computing division -- and the market grabbed at those like a lifebelt. Azure's revenue grew faster than expected, demand is still exceeding Microsoft's available computing capacity, and the company says its spending will continue. That is fantastic news for Chinese optical-transceiver companies, data equipment makers, semiconductor firms and memory-chip producers-basically the entire AI supply chain. And it is those shares currently underpinning gains on the Chinese mainland market," he said.
Chinese stock markets close higher amid US tech earning stimulation: analyst
