The Nikkei 225 Index dropped 2.8% to below 70,400 on Friday, while the broader Topix Index declined 0.7% to 3,987, erasing the previous session’s gains as technology shares came under renewed selling pressure following Thursday’s strong rally. Japanese equities also reflected the choppy trading seen on Wall Street, where declines in megacap technology names outweighed optimism stemming from a bullish outlook for memory-chip makers.
Notable laggards included Kioxia Holdings (-4.1%), SoftBank Group (-10.8%), Advantest (-6.2%), Tokyo Electron (-2.3%), and Taiyo Yuden (-8.3%). On the macroeconomic front, data showed that Tokyo’s core inflation rate accelerated for the first time in eight months, bolstering expectations that the Bank of Japan will press ahead with further interest rate increases.
