Japan's Nikkei at record high as SoftBank surges on AI bets

By Junko Fujita

TOKYO, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average marked a fresh closing high on Thursday, as optimism over the growth of AI-driven cloud businesses in the U.S. sent index heavyweight SoftBank Group's shares higher.

The Nikkei .N225 rose 1.22% to close at 44,372.5, after rising as much as 1.3% to a record intraday high of 44,396.95.

By contrast, the broader Topix .TOPX added just 0.22% to 3,147.76.

"The Nikkei has come to a level which is no longer cheap. The market has already priced in the growth in Japan and the U.S. for next year," said Hitoshi Asaoka, chief strategist at Asset Management One.

"The index has been led by the same stocks, which are related to AI, chips and cables. Investors are not confident enough about the economic outlook so that they cannot rotate their targets."

Oracle ORCL.N soared 36% overnight in the U.S., marking its biggest one-day percentage gain since 1992. 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 9.98%, while chip-testing equipment maker Advantest 6857.T rose 4.38%.

Cable maker Fujikura 5803.T, considered a barometer for data centre investments globally, gained 2.64%.

The banking sector .IBNKS.T slid 1.36% and insurance .IINSU.T lost 1.11%, making them the worst performers among the Tokyo Stock Exchange's 33 industry sub-indexes.

Meanwhile, the market remains uncertain about the Bank of Japan's 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 currently prices in a 60.7% chance of the BOJ raising rates by 25 basis points to 0.75% at its policy meeting in December.