Japan's Nikkei rises as SoftBank rebounds from AI-led selloff

Business Recorder reported that Japan's Nikkei share average recovered its early losses and rose roughly 1% to 64,082.36 by the midday break. SoftBank Group, a technology investor, helped lift the index as its shares jumped 9.13%, making up part of the 10.7% decline recorded the day before.

AI-linked shares had come under heavy pressure after industry figures warned about possible hazards from the technology. Executives at US artificial intelligence firms have also called for slowing AI development, and traders were reassessing those remarks. Strategist Kazuaki Shimada of IwaiCosmo Securities said Japan was the first market to feel the impact of the warnings, while investors considered it premature to judge how hyperscalers would proceed with AI spending.

Kioxia gained 2.73%, while the chip-linked pair Advantest and Tokyo Electron added 0.8% and 0.33%, in that order. Leopalace21 did not trade amid heavy buy orders after the apartment operator disclosed a 1,000-yen-per-share tender offer from Hikari Tsushin and investment funds. The Topix was flat at 4,057.06, with AI gains drawing money away from value stocks, and bank shares such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group fell. Of more than 1,500 prime market stocks, 57% rose, 38% fell and 4% were flat.