The Nikkei Index officially hit a record high after a lapse of about 34 years. The Nikkei 225 Index reached 38924.88 points during Thursday's trading session, breaking through the historic closing high of 38915.87 points set on December 29, 1989.
Semiconductor stocks such as Tokyo Electron (Tokyo Electron) and Advantest led the market. US chipmaker Nvidia said that revenue for the November-January quarter more than tripled from the same period last year to 22.1 billion US dollars, and net revenue increased more than eight times to 12.3 billion US dollars. The company benefits from growing demand for chips used to drive artificial intelligence technology.
The rise in the Nikkei Average was driven by global investors, many of whom entered the Japanese stock market for the first time. They were attracted by corporate governance reforms, weak yen, and tax-deferred investment plans for small investors — Nippon Individual Savings Accounts (NISA).
Of the 2,152 constituent stocks in the TSE Index, 1,317 rose, 733 fell, and 102 remained flat. Exporters' stocks were supported, and the exchange rate of yen against the US dollar remained below 150 yen. Toyota increased 2.4% after Mizuho raised the target price for Toyota from 3,500 yen to 3,900 yen.
According to data from Japan's Ministry of Finance, foreigners made a net purchase of 382 billion yen of Japanese stocks for the week ending February 16. This is the seventh consecutive week of net purchases in the Japanese stock market.