Japan's Nikkei gains as chip-sector shares track US peers higher

By Kevin Buckland

TOKYO, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average rose on Wednesday, led higher by chip-sector stocks, tracking an advance among U.S. peers on Wall Street overnight.

The Nikkei .N225 added 0.3% to 50,559.01, as of 0150 GMT, on course for a fourth consecutive winning session.

The biggest boosts to the index came from heavily weighted semiconductor equipment makers Advantest 6857.T and Tokyo Electron 8035.T, which added a combined 119 points to the Nikkei.

The biggest percentage gainer was Tokyo Electron's smaller rival Screen Holdings 7735.T, which surged 9.3% after Morgan Stanley MUFG raised its price target on the stock.

Overnight, the Philadelphia SE semiconductor index .SOX climbed 0.5% to mark a fourth straight session of gains. The S&P 500 .SPX touched a record high.

The broader Topix .TOPX slipped 0.1% to 3,418.75, with insurers, banks and securities firms retreating after rallying on Friday's Bank of Japan rate hike to a three-decade high.

"Japanese chip-related shares are tracking U.S. peers and lifting the overall market," and the Nikkei's outperformance of the Topix is evidence of that, said Wataru Akiyama, a strategist at Nomura Securities.

With trading thinned by holidays in most overseas markets to end the week, big moves in Japanese equities are unlikely, he said.

Japanese markets are open Thursday and Friday as usual.

Advantest rose 1.9% and Tokyo Electron gained 2%. Furukawa Electric 5801.T jumped 2.2%.

Chip-sector gains did not translate to bullishness around startup investor SoftBank Group 9984.T, which lost 1.3%.

Financial companies took most of the bottom spots among the Tokyo Stock Exchange's 33 industry groups.

Insurance .IINSU.T was the worst performer, down 1.4%. Banking .IBNKS.T dropped 0.8% and securities firms .ISECU.T lost 0.6%.

A rebounding yen against the U.S. dollar continued to weigh on the autos sector .ITEQP.T, which fell 0.8%. Toyota 7203.T sank 1.1%, as did Subaru 7270.T.