Japan's Nikkei hits record high as SoftBank surges on AI cloud growth bets

By Junko Fujita

TOKYO, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average climbed to a record high on Thursday, led by Softbank Group, which tracked its U.S. peers higher on optimism over the growth of AI-driven cloud businesses.

As of 0144 GMT, the Nikkei .N225 rose 0.8% to 44,198.10, after touching a record high of 44,251.65 earlier in the day.

The broader Topix .TOPX was flat at 3,149.38.

"SoftBank Group boosted the Nikkei, benefiting from expectations that the cloud businesses would continue to grow following a surge in shares in Oracle," said Yugo Tsuboi, chief strategist at Daiwa Securities.

Oracle ORCL.N soared 36% overnight, marking its biggest one-day percentage gain since 1992, after the tech company pointed to a demand surge from AI firms for its cloud services, helping the S&P 500 and Nasdaq notch record-high closes on Wednesday. .N

Technology investor SoftBank Group 9984.T jumped 9%, while chip-testing equipment maker Advantest 6857.T rose 3.54%.

Cable maker Fujikura 5803.T, seen as a barometer for data centre investments, gained 4%.

"Investors, however, are not entirely bullish on Japanese stocks," said Daiwa's Tsuboi.

"If the market is positive about the outlook of the Japanese economy, the bank shares should also rise, but they were weak today."

The banking sector .IBNKS.T slipped 0.99% and the insurance sector .IINSU.T lost 1.09%, becoming the worst performers among the Tokyo Stock Exchange's 33 industry sub-indexes.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group 8306.T and Mizuho Financial Group 8411.T fell 1.46% and 1.04%, respectively. Dai-ichi Life Holdings 8750.T shed 1.68%.

Meanwhile, the market remains uncertain about the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) rate hike path, as the central bank weighs domestic inflation and the economic hit from U.S. tariffs.

The appointment of a new Japanese prime minister next month could also give the BOJ more reasons to go slow on its next rate hike.

The market priced in a 59% chance of the BOJ raising rates by 25 basis points to 0.75% by its policy meeting in December.