Japanese shares track Wall Street higher; Tokyo Electron leads gains

TOKYO, Nov 15 (Reuters) – Japanese shares rose on Monday, taking cues from Wall Street’s strong finish on the weekend, with chip-making equipment supplier Tokyo Electron leading gains, while investors shook off a negative domestic economic data.

The Nikkei share average rose 0.5% to 29,752.53 by 0156 GMT, while the broader Topix gained 0.44% to 2,049.58.

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Friday, with market-leading growth shares, including Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp kick-starting indexes’ climb as investors looked past disappointing U.S. economic data.

“Recently Japanese market sometimes shows little correlation with the U.S. market but today we can say the market rose because of the Wall Street’s gains on the weekend,” said Jun Morita, general manager of the research department at Chibagin Asset Management.

“But we can not find any market-moving catalysts that could lift the Nikkei above the 30,000 level.”

The market did not react to the news that Japan’s economy shrank faster than expected in the third quarter, as global supply disruptions and fresh COVID-19 cases hit business and consumer spending.

Heavyweight Tokyo Electron gained 1.53% after the company raised its profit forecast as well as outlook for dividend payouts.

Restaurant shares gained as Skylark Holdings raised its annual net profit forecast to 10 billion yen ($88 million) from 400 million yen.

Skylark surged 6.75% while sushi restaurant chain Food & Life Companies and Kurgan Sushi rose 1.93% and 1.79%, respectively.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group rose 2.12% after reporting a surge in its first-profit, while a rival Mizuho Financial Group fell despite a robust earnings.

The largest percentage decliners were Ebara , falling 5.48 %, followed by Nippon Express and Dentsu Group, losing 4.97% and 3.51%, respectively.

There were 106 advancers on the Nikkei index against 113 decliners. ($1 = 113.8200 yen)

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