Japan’s Nikkei closes at 6-week high as technology shares rise

Japan’s Nikkei index closed at a six-week high on Monday, October 31, tracking Wall Street’s strong close in the previous session, with technology stocks topping the list.

The Nikkei rose 1.78% to 27,587.46 points, its highest level since Sept. 20, and its biggest one-day gain since Oct. 14.

The broader Topix index jumped 1.6 percent to 1929.43 points.

The broad-based strong rally pushed Wall Street to a sharply higher close on Friday, as encouraging economic data and brighter outlook fueled investor risk appetite ahead of the Fed’s highly anticipated monetary policy meeting later this week.

Japan’s electrical appliances sector rose 2.78%, the largest among the 33 subsector indices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Hitachi shares jumped 6.04% after the group raised its earnings forecast.

And the share of SoftBank Group for Investment in Technology provided the largest gain for the Nikkei index, as it rose 6.21%.

Fast Retailing, operator of clothing stores Uniqlo, advanced 0.9%, and chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron jumped 1.31%.

206 stocks advanced over Nikkei, while 15 stocks declined.