Japan shares close higher for the second day after a push from Wall Street

Japan’s Nikkei rose for a second session on Thursday, boosted by technology and travel stocks, tracking gains made by Wall Street Thursday night.

The Nikkei ended the session up 1.22 percent to 27,172 points, to close above the 27,000 points level for the first time since the sixth of April.

The broader Topix index rose 0.95%. All but two of the 33 sub-sectors on the Tokyo Stock Exchange increased, with losses not exceeding 0.24 percent. The air transport sector was the best performer, increasing by 4.15 percent.

A trader in a local securities company said, “While the bulk of the Nikkei’s gains yesterday was an automatic recovery from the lowest level, it reflects today what happened in US stocks and there are indications of a possible trend towards recovery.”

Shares of Fast Retailing, owner of clothing store Uniqlo, rose 2.14 percent. The company recorded an 18 percent increase in operating profit in the first half.

SoftBank Group, which invests in emerging companies, rose 3.04 percent, and chip giant Tokyo Electron rose 1.83 percent.

Shares of other Japanese chip companies gained, with Advantest adding 1.76 percent. Renaissance Electronics jumped 6.36 percent after its chairman said in an interview with Nikkei-CNBC that he was considering a share buyback.

Shares of airline ANA jumped 3.6% after its US counterpart, Delta, expected a return to profits in the current quarter.

Shares of travel company HIS rose 2.59% after announcing the resumption of flights to Hawaii after a two-year hiatus.