Japan shares end firmer as ruling party elects new leader

TOKYO, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Japanese shares ended higher on
Monday after Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga won a
landslide victory in a ruling party leadership election, paving
the way for him to succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The benchmark Nikkei share average .N225 closed 0.74%
higher at 23,579.48, while the broader Topix .TOPX gained
0.93% to 1,651.91, hitting the highest level since Feb. 21.
"The market is strong today. There is an anticipation of
higher prices," said Hideyuki Ishiguro, senior strategist at
Daiwa Securities, adding that investors' buying appetite helped
offset selling pressure.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga won the
party leadership race after financial markets closed on Monday.
Suga is set to become prime minister on Wednesday, succeeding
Abe, the nation's longest-serving leader. Suga, 71, who served in the powerful post of chief cabinet
secretary during Abe's nearly eight-year tenure, has said he
will pursue his predecessor's "Abenomics" recipe of hyper-easy
monetary policy, government spending and reform. Leading the gains, SoftBank Group jumped 8.96% to mark its
biggest daily gain since March 25, after the company said it
agreed to sell chip designer Arm to Nvidia Corp for as much as
$40 billion in a deal set to reshape the semiconductor
landscape.
Executives of the tech conglomerate have also held
early-stage talks about taking the company private as it seeks a
new strategy after disposing of several large assets, a person
familiar with the matter told Reuters. Also supporting market sentiment were gains in U.S. stock
futures during the Asian trade, in addition to COVID-19 vaccine
hopes after AstraZeneca resumed its trials. Paper and pulp .IPAPR.T led the sectoral gainers on the
main bourse, up 2.38%, with Pack Corp 3950.T climbing 3.66%
and Nippon Paper Industries 3863.T rising 1.64%.
Telecommunication companies were hit after Suga said on
Friday he wanted to cut cell phone charges by around 40%.
SoftBank Corp 9434.T dropped 5.01%, while NTT Docomo
9437.T and KDDI Corp 9433.T dropped 2.73% and 3.05%,
respectively.