Japan's Nikkei rises as oil falls before key earnings
EWJ•Investors weigh earnings and stock moves
"Reduced concern over higher crude prices should support Japanese shares overall, while buybacks are also expected in stocks that had seen an increasingly corrective tone through last week," said Takayuki Miyajima, senior economist at Sony Financial Group.
"However, with major U.S. cloud companies due to report earnings this week, investors may be reluctant to aggressively chase the upside as they assess capital spending plans and the monetisation of AI investment," he said.
Investors are focused on a busy week of earnings announcements in the U.S. and Japan, as well as central bank decisions.
In Tokyo, chip-testing equipment maker Advantest 6857.T is due to report earnings on Wednesday, while memory chipmaker Kioxia 285A.T is scheduled to report on Friday.
Market breadth was positive, with 194 advancers on the Nikkei 225 against 31 decliners.
Software testing and quality assurance services provider Shift 3697.T was the top percentage gainer on the index, rising 9.32%, followed by consulting services provider BayCurrent 6532.T, up 8.95%, and Shiseido 4911.T, a global cosmetics and skincare company, which rose 7.62%.
Shares of Shin-Etsu Chemical 4063.T slid 8.3%, making the silicon and chemical products maker the Nikkei's biggest percentage loser, after its full-year consolidated net profit outlook undershot market expectations. It was the stock's steepest percentage loss since January.
Optical fibre producer Fujikura 5803.T lost 5.83% and SoftBank Group 9984.T, a tech investment conglomerate, shed 3.07%.
Nikkei and Topix close higher as oil falls
Japan's Nikkei share average ended Monday's session higher, helped by a fall in oil prices after a halt in U.S. attacks on Iran, while investors stayed cautious before major earnings due this week.
The benchmark Nikkei .N225 rose 0.5% to close at 64,931.19 after fluctuating between gains and losses. The broader Topix .TOPX rose 1.37% to 4,066.07.
