Japan's Nikkei rises as tech shares track Wall Street rally; Eisai surges

By Rocky Swift

TOKYO, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock gauge climbed on Tuesday after a holiday-extended weekend, boosted by strong performances among technology shares that mirrored a recent rally on Wall Street.

The Nikkei 225 Index .N225 was up 0.7% at 48,946.07, bouncing back from a 2.4% slide on Friday. The broader Topix .TOPX edged 0.2% higher.

Major share indexes on Wall Street closed higher on Monday for a second session, as bets solidified that the U.S. Federal Reserve will deliver another interest rate cut in December. The tech-heavy Nasdaq spearheaded the rally, driven by strong performances from artificial intelligence-related stocks.

"Stocks that had seen notable declines, particularly AI-related ones, followed the rising trend in the U.S. stock market," Nomura Securities strategist Maki Sawada said.

"However, looking at futures, currency movements, and the rise in interest rates, we anticipate that upside momentum may be constrained."

There were 139 advancers in the Nikkei against 85 decliners. The sharpest advancers were TOPPAN Holdings 7911.T, up 7.1%, followed by Sumitomo Electric Industries 5802.T, which gained 6.4%, and chip-sector heavyweight Advantest 6857.T, up by 5.1%.

Defying the broader upbeat sentiment, Mitsui Kinzoku 5706.T led the decliners with a 6.12% drop, followed by SoftBank Group 9984.T, down 4.1%, and Tokyo Electric Power 9501.T, which fell 3.9%.

Eisai 4523.T, a co-developer of Alzheimer's treatment Lequembi, jumped 5.1% after Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO said clinical trials of its semaglutide drug failed to help slow the progression of the brain-wasting illness.