Japanese shares rebounded on Thursday to close the trading session with gains as AI-related shares fuelled optimism in the technology sector in the US.
The Nikkei 225 closed up 924.80 points or 1.38%, at 67,743.85.
The local sentiment tracked the overnight gains on Wall Street after a chip-supply agreement of over $30 billion was signed between Broadcom AVGO.O and Apple AAPL.O. Media reports of China planning to allow its main AI firms to purchase a limited number of Nvidia's NVDA.O H200 chips also boosted investors' enthusiasm.
The rally in semiconductor stocks helped to lessen the impact of the International Monetary Fund's decision to lower its growth forecast for Japan to 0.6% for 2026, from the 0.7% projection in April.
Also, back home Japan's machine tool orders increased 52.8% year over year in June to 203.5 billion yen, according to preliminary data from the Japan Machine Tool Builders' Association released Thursday.
On the corporate side, GLP J-REIT (TYO:3281) has agreed to sell GLP Tomisato, a domestic real estate asset, to an undisclosed buyer for a total of 7.20 billion yen, according to a Thursday filing with the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Also, Round One's (TYO:4680) June sales in Japan climbed 14.8% to 8.84 billion yen, with all segments posting gains, the company said in a bourse filing on Thursday.