Japan's Nikkei edges lower as Advantest, SoftBank Group drag

By Junko Fujita

TOKYO, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average eased on Tuesday in choppy trade, weighed down by declines in Advantest and SoftBank Group, although strong outlook-driven gains in some technology stocks helped limit losses.

The Nikkei .N225 was down 0.1% at 52,361.14 by the midday break. The broader Topix .TOPX rose 0.38% to 3,344.48.

Chip-testing equipment maker Advantest 6857.T lost 3.63% and technology investor SoftBank Group 9984.T fell 1.33%, dragging the index the most.

"The Nikkei went up and down today, but sentiment was strong as seen in the gains of the Topix index," said Shuutarou Yasuda, a market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory.

"The market momentum was supported by the strong performance of U.S. technology stocks such as Amazon," he said.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed higher on Monday, with artificial intelligence-related deals driving much of the gains. Amazon AMZN.O rose 4% after announcing a $38 billion deal with OpenAI.

Japan's stock market was closed for a public holiday on Monday.

On Tuesday, Tokyo Electron 8035.T jumped 3.95% after the chip-making equipment maker on Friday hiked its operating profit forecast by 2.8% for the year ending March 2026.

Sumitomo Electric 5802.T, a gauge for investments for AI data centres, surged 12.73% after the cable maker raised its annual net profit forecast by 18.7% to 230 billion yen ($1.53 billion).

Other decliners included chip-related Socionext 6526.T, which tanked 19.54% after flagging its annual net profit would fall 65.8% to 6.7 billion yen.

Of more than 1,600 stocks trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's prime market, 67% rose, 30% fell, while 2% traded flat.

($1 = 150.7800 yen)