TOKYO, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Japanese shares inched higher on
Monday as investors awaited election results for the country's
ruling party to choose a successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The benchmark Nikkei share average .N225 rose 0.74% to
23,579.48, while the broader Topix .TOPX gained 0.93% to
1,651.91.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga is poised to
become head of Japan's ruling party on Monday and prime minister
on Wednesday, succeeding Abe, the nation's longest-serving
leader. As Suga has long been a loyal aide to Abe and has vowed to
continue his policies, few market players expect radical
changes.
But some market participants also speculated that investors
might chase the market higher in the afternoon on hopes that
stock prices could rise further after the election results.
Leading the gains, SoftBank Group 9984.T jumped 9.4% after
the company said it agreed to sell chip designer Arm to Nvidia
Corp NVDA.O 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 2.4%, with Pack Corp 3950.T climbing 3.83% and
Nippon Paper Industries 3863.T rising 1.64%
Mitsui High-tec 6966.T soared 12.3% after the
semiconductor reported operating profit of 726 million yen for
the six months ended July 31.
Telecommunication companies were hit by worries over Suga
being elected as the new leader, after he said on Friday he
wanted to cut cell phone charges by around 40%. Mobile phone carriers SoftBank Corp 9434.T fell 1.99%,
while NTT Docomo 9437.T and KDDI Corp 9433.T dropped 3.4%
and 3.5%, respectively.