Japan's Nikkei rallies as tech shares track gains for Wall St peers

By Kevin Buckland

TOKYO, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average rose on Tuesday, with tech shares leading the advance after Wall Street peers rallied overnight on optimism that an end was in sight to the U.S. government shutdown.

The tech-heavy Nikkei .N225 climbed 0.7% to 51,269.56 about an hour into the trading day, and earlier touched a one-week high of 51,513.16.

Artificial intelligence-focused startup investor SoftBank Group 9984.T jumped 4.8%, single-handedly contributing 193 index points of the Nikkei's total 406-point advance. The company will report earnings after the close of trading.

Under the surface, though, the Nikkei was split, with 121 of its 225 components rising, 98 falling and six trading flat.

The broader Topix .TOPX added a more muted 0.3% to 3,327.93.

"Chip- and data-center stocks certainly stand out," said Maki Sawada, a strategist at Nomura Securities.

"But even within that group, there are exceptions."

The nearly even split between gainers and losers "shows that there's no single, big driving force, and some traders are taking the opportunity to lock in profits", she said.

Chip-making machinery manufacturer Tokyo Electron 8035.T added 0.3%. Chip-maker Renesas 6723.T advanced 3.2%.

Chip-testing equipment maker Lasertec 6920.T jumped 3.9%, but larger peer Advantest 6857.T eased 0.4%.

Sony Group 6758.T, which will also report earnings after the close of trading, added 0.4%.