Nikkei closes above 33 thousand points for the first time in 33 years

Japan’s Nikkei index rose on Tuesday to close above 30,000 points for the first time in 33 years, supported by technology stocks amid expectations of an influx of investment into chipmakers.

The index continued its rise for the third consecutive session, increasing 1.8 percent to 33,018.65 points, surpassing the important psychological level for the first time since July 1990.

The broader Topix index rose 1.16 percent to close at 2,264.79 points.

Shares in SoftBank Group Corp jumped 5.25 percent on news that it may be entering into an artificial intelligence project with OpenAI, the operator of GPT chat technology, and that its Arm semiconductor unit is in investment talks with Intel Corp. Chip testing equipment maker Advantest Corp rose 4.79 percent.

Toyota Motor Corp jumped 4.99 percent after the automaker announced plans to market the next generation of electric car batteries starting in 2026.

Among the Nikkei index companies, the shares of 170 companies rose, while the shares of 54 companies declined.

The auto industry index rose 3.4 percent, the best performer among the 33 sub-indices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The index of paper makers led the losers, down 1.05 percent.