Nikkei and Taiex lead gains in Asia, as tech stocks rally on renewed AI enthusiasm

Asia-Pacific markets rose Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street fueled by a tech rally.

Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 3.41% to close at 36,833.27 and The Taiwan Weighted Index advanced 2.96% to finish at 21,653.25.

During the trading session, chipmakers and related companies extended the global chip rally, as the bullish investor sentiment spilled over to Asia.

Tokyo Electron rose 4.8%, Advantest was up 9% and Renesas Electronics was 3.47% higher. SoftBank Group, which owns a stake in chip designer Arm, jumped 8.4%.

In South Korea, the Kospi was 1.67% higher and the small cap Kosdaq gained 3%. SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics soared over 8% and 1.85%, respectively.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company closed 4.79% higher and Hon Hai Precision Industry — known internationally as Foxconn — up 4.72%.

Asian chipmaking heavyweights rallied after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a compelling case for the future demand for AI chips.

Separately, shares of Seven & i jumped as much as 7.3% after Bloomberg reported that Alimentation Couche-Tard is weighing increasing its bid for the Japanese retail group. The report noted, however, Couche-Tard would need to come up with a much more attractive proposal than the initial $39 billion buyout approach.

Couche-Tard is still debating next steps and there's no certainty it will submit another proposal, Bloomberg report said, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

On the economic front, Japan's producer price index rose 2.5% year-on-year in August, less than the expected 2.8% and the 3% reported in the previous month. The data is among the key indicators closely watched by the Bank of Japan. The central bank has signaled it intends to further raise interest rates in coming months.

Investors will