HONG KONG — Shares in computer-chip related companies rallied, with Renesas Electronics Corp. 6723, +4.87% jumping 5.8% and Advantest Corp. 6857, +3.67% up 3.9%. Olympus 7733, +3.01% gained 7.4%.
Shares in Japan have tracked gains in other markets driven by expectations for strong demand for technology associated with artificial intelligence. They’ve also been boosted by continued easy credit policies that has the Bank of Japan pumping money into the economy to help support growth. Those policies have kept the Japanese yen relatively weak against the U.S. dollar and other major currencies, boosting profits of exporters.
Tokyo’s rally followed broad gains Friday on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 SPX rose 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA added 0.2% and the Nasdaq composite COMP climbed 1.1%. Excitement around artificial-intelligence technology helped drive the advance. Dell DELL, +31.62% soared more than 30%.