Japanese Shares Fall as Tech Drags

2025-12-18 00:51 By Jam Kaimo Samonte 1 min. read

The Nikkei 225 Index fell 1.03% to close at 49,001 while the broader Topix Index lost 0.37% to 3,357 on Thursday, extending this week’s decline and tracking a selloff on Wall Street driven by concerns over elevated valuations and aggressive spending on AI.

The latest downturn was also exacerbated by reports that Oracle’s primary investor, Blue Owl Capital, withdrew funding from one of its data center projects, weighing on global technology sentiment.

Domestically, investors remained cautious ahead of the Bank of Japan’s two day policy meeting, where the central bank is widely expected to raise its policy rate by 25 basis points to 0.75%.

Technology and AI-related shares led the losses, including SoftBank Group (-3.8%), Fujikura (-3.4%), Advantest (-3.3%), Lasertec (-4.3%) and Tokyo Electron (-3.2%).

In corporate news, Sumitomo Mitsui’s CEO said the bank expects to reach a key profit milestone ahead of schedule and capitalize on its strategic alliance with Jefferies Financial.



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