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Source: Newsmaker.id
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index plummeted 4.9% to 64,426 by the close of trading on Thursday (October 15), marking its largest daily decline since March. The sharp downturn followed an intensified sell-off in technology stocks, driven by concerns regarding the sustainability of massive investments in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
Tech stocks and AI-related companies bore the brunt of the pressure. Kioxia shares slid 12.5%, Advantest plunged 14.2%, SoftBank Group fell 8.9%, Taiyo Yuden weakened by 10%, and Lasertec dropped 13.3%. Investors have begun to question the high valuations of companies with significant exposure to the development of global AI infrastructure.
The pressure also extended to the banking sector, with Mitsubishi UFJ falling 1.6%, Sumitomo Mitsui weakening by 1.7%, and Mizuho Financial correcting by 2.7%. Meanwhile, concerns over inflation—fueled by rising energy prices—have bolstered expectations that the central bank will need to maintain a tight monetary policy, further weighing on risk assets.
These conditions indicate that market sentiment in Japan is currently highly sensitive to shifts in interest rate expectations and the valuations of the technology sector. The weakness in the Nikkei also reflects more aggressive profit-taking following a prior rally, particularly among stocks that had reached high valuations fueled by optimism surrounding the prospects of AI. (asd)
Source: Newsmaker.id