Japanese shares rise on AI-shares rally, dividend hunt

By Junko Fujita

TOKYO, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Japanese shares rose on Friday as AI-related stocks gained and investors bought ahead of Monday's deadline to qualify for mid-term dividends.

The Nikkei .N225 was up 1.23% to 66,318.14 by the midday break. The broader Topix .TOPX rose 1.19% to 4,123.73.

"Investors picked up stocks to secure the right to dividend payouts, but moreover, the demand for chip-related stocks supported the market," said Daisuke Hashizume, a senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.

Bank shares, which typically pay higher dividends, were the top performers among the Tokyo Stock Exchange's (TSE) 33 industry sub-indexes, rising 3.23%.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group 8306.T rose 3.02%, providing the biggest support for the Topix's gain. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group 8316.T climbed 2.9%.

Chip-related Tokyo Electron 8035.T and Advantest 6857.T rose 4.04% and 2.45%, respectively, providing the biggest source of the Nikkei's gain.

Ibiden 4062.T, a central processing unit component maker, rose 5.6% after jumping 14.57% in the previous session.

Solid economic data supports the strength of technology stocks, said Daiwa's Hashizume.

"And the central banks in the United States and Japan made it clear that they would fend off inflation by raising rates, which boosted investor confidence in stocks," he said.

Technology investor SoftBank Group 9984.T fell 2.63% after shares of Oracle ORCL.N slipped 3% overnight, following a report that Oracle issued a "force majeure" notice to a Blue Owl OWL.N unit, the developer of a large New Mexico data center, citing potential delays in securing power for the project.

SoftBank is a co-investor in the "Stargate" infrastructure project together with Oracle and OpenAI.

Of more than 1,500 stocks trading on the TSE's prime market, 68% rose, 27% fell and 3% traded flat.