Tokyo stocks ended higher Monday, driven by the strong performance of artificial intelligence stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei stock index, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average, ended up 1,363.51 points, or 2.08 percent, from Friday at 66,970.22.
The broader Topix index, meanwhile, finished 25.68 points, or 0.63 percent, higher at 4,100.61.
"Over in Tokyo today the market jumped pretty sharply - up 2 percent on some strong AI stocks. Advantest was up 6.4 percent and fiber-optic cable maker Fujikura was up a bit more than 7.5 percent. And IBIDEN, another Nvidia supplier, rose by 4 percent as well," said Timothy Pope, a market analyst for China Global Television Network (CGTN).
Pope noted that investors are set to pay close attention to Tokyo-listed growth stocks and exporter stocks as the country's central bank is likely to take a hawkish stance on rate hike.
"But today the Bank of Japan also gave us some reasons to keep a bit of a careful eye on Japanese interest rates because their July meeting summary was notably hawkish. Some policymakers were talking about the need to speed up rate hikes to stop inflation from overshooting their target 2 percent. A rate hike would not be good news for growth stocks in Japan and combined with the stronger yen after last week's currency intervention, it could also hit exporter stocks," he said.
Tokyo shares surge on AI stock rally: analyst
