FX168 Financial News (Asia Pacific) News The Japanese stock market opened high on Wednesday (May 23). Previously, earnings announced by its US counterpart Nvidia exceeded extremely high expectations, but concerns about the Bank of Japan's policy prospects limited the increase.

The rise in Japanese stocks widened in the afternoon, ending the previous two consecutive trading days of decline, with financial investment, insurance, and communications sectors leading the way. #日本市场 #

By the close, the Nikkei 225 index had risen 1.28% to 39,103 points, a record high in a month. Technology stocks led the Nikkei Average as gains in artificial intelligence-related stocks received a reassuring boost.

In terms of individual stocks, the best performer in the Nikkei 225 Index is Teijin Ltd. (Teijin Ltd.) The company rose 10.32%, or 145.00 points, to close at 1,550.00 points. Meanwhile, Lasertec rose 6.31%, or 2,700.00 points, to close at 45,470.00 points, while Renesas Electronics rose 5.48%, or 148.00 points, to close at 2,849.00 points.

The worst performer of the day was Nexon, which is estimated to have dropped 5.64% to close at 257.50 points. Mitsubishi Materials lost 3.55%, or 112.00 points, to close at 3,040.00 points, while Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings fell 3.26%, or 98.50 points, to close at 2,923.50 points.

The number of falling stocks on the Tokyo Stock Exchange surpassed the number of rising stocks, reaching 1,634, and 265 closed flat.

Nikkei's volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 Index options, was flat and traded at 17.11.

Looking at fundamentals, earlier data showed that the initial value of Japan's Au Jibun Bank Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) in May rose to 50.5 from the final value of 49.6 in April, the first time since May last year that it rose above the 50 boom and bust divide.

The most watched event of the week did not disappoint the market, with US chipmaker Nvidia (Nvidia)'s stock price hitting a record high after forecasting higher-than-expected quarterly earnings and announced a stock split on Wednesday.

Kenji Abe, stock analyst at Daiwa Securities, said, “Nvidia's earnings were better than expected, so this is definitely good news for Japanese technology stocks, especially semiconductor-related companies.”

Over the past year, chip-related stocks have been one of the best performing stocks in the Nikkei Index, helping the benchmark index rise to an intraday record high of 41,087.75 points in March. However, on Thursday, with the exception of technology stocks, other stocks did not increase much, and less than half of the constituent stocks in the Nikkei 225 index fell.

Analysts said that caution about the Bank of Japan's policy path has dampened market sentiment. The Bank of Japan unexpectedly lowered the scale of bond issuance last week, and recently there have been hawkish signals.

Japan's 10-year treasury yield rose to a 10-year high of more than 1% on Wednesday. This psychologically significant level brought the market's concerns about policy back into focus.