TOKYO
\nJapan\u2019s Nikkei share average rose on Friday, locking in its largest weekly gains since September, although downward revisions to corporate profits and uncertainty about whether Republicans would win both chambers of the US Congress weighed.
\nThe Nikkei closed 0.3% higher at 39,500.37, while the broader Topix ended down 0.03% at 2,742.15.
\nThe Nikkei secured its biggest weekly gain since late September at 3.8%, rallying with Wall Street after former Republican President Donald Trump\u2019s victory in the US presidential election.
\nJapan\u2019s AI-focused startup investor SoftBank Group added 2.9% and was among heavyweight shares to follow their US peers higher.
\nUniqlo parent firm Fast Retailing and staffing agency Recruit Holdings, up 0.8% and 4.4%, respectively, also lent support to the Nikkei.
\nHowever, investors were still waiting to see if Republicans manage to take control of both chambers of the US Congress, which could affect how easily Trump can enact his proposals.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s unclear whether we\u2019re going to see a \u2018Red sweep\u2019 or a divided government situation. So momentum for the Nikkei to aggressively rise is not particularly strong at the moment,\u201d said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management.
\nMeanwhile, domestic corporate earnings have also \u201cnot been particularly good\u201d, with companies in economically sensitive areas such as automakers posting more cautious earnings, limiting the upside for gains on the Nikkei, he added.
\nCorporate revenue releases drew out some of the biggest winners and losers on the Nikkei.
\nElectronics components maker Taiyo Yuden tumbled 16%, cosmetic firm Shiseido slipped 7%, while electronics maker Furukawa Electric surged 17.4%.
\nNissan Motor slumped as much as 10% after announcing on Thursday it will cut 9,000 jobs and 20% of its global manufacturing capacity.
\nIt was last down 6.1%, along with Toyota and Honda , down 3.6% and 2.7%, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TOKYO Japan\u2019s Nikkei share average rose on Friday, locking in its largest weekly gains since September, although downward revisions to corporate profits and uncertainty about whether Republicans would win both chambers of the US Congress weighed. The Nikkei closed 0.3% higher at 39,500.37, while the broader Topix ended down 0.03% at 2,742.15. The Nikkei secured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442626,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-442705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\n