Japan's Nikkei share average reached its highest level since March 1990 at Tuesdays close, as investors snapped up chip-related stocks in response to an overnight Wall Street rally in technology shares.
Last night, The Nasdaq 100 rose 2% as the Consumer Electronics Show got underway in Las Vegas. A flurry of tech announcements from big names like Nvidia and AMD helped power semiconductor stocks higher.
The rally in the tech sector spread abroad to Asian markets. The Nikkei 225 Index finished 1.2% higher at 33,763.18, after hitting a 33-year high of 33990.28 earlier this morning. Of the 225 stocks on the index, 151 advanced.
Chip-related stocks, which tend to move the benchmark, led the Nikkei's rise after Nvidia and other U.S.-listed chipmakers surged overnight. Tokyo Electron and Advantest, up 4.27% and 7.06% respectively, lifted the index up around 200 points.
The Nikkei clocked its best year in a decade in 2023, buoyed by hopes of better governance. The 28% gain of the benchmark Nikkei 225 last year was its fastest expansion in a decade, while it ended the year at 33,464.17 - the highest tally since the twilight of the Japanese bubble economy in 1989.
After an initial pullback to start 2024, the Nikkei rallied an additional 1.6% from last year's final trading day to hit Tuesday's peak after more than three decades.
In contrast, Chinas benchmark CSI 300 Index managed to gain 0.23% after hitting 5-year lows in the session. The benchmark fell by 4% further from last years rout in the first week of 2024 as the worlds second-largest economy has been struck with weak recovery, indebted local governments, and property crisis.
Beijing still lags in pushing solutions and stimuli for the challenges it faces. The market mood is souring as Chinese investors confidence wanes when they see no end in the sell-off.