Japan's Nikkei average rose on Thursday to record its best monthly performance in three years as bets on US interest rates peaking sent global stocks higher.
Japanese stocks received a boost from a strong corporate earnings season that ended earlier this month. The lower yen helped exporters and retailers successfully pass on higher costs to consumers.
The Nikkei rose 0.5 percent to 33,486.89 points at the close and rose in the afternoon session after spending most of the morning slightly lower.
This increased the index’s gains for this month to 8.52 percent, the largest since November 2020.
The broader Topix index rose 0.44 percent on Thursday, achieving monthly gains of 5.38 percent.
The Nikkei reached a 33-year high of 33,853.46 on November 20.
On Thursday, shares of Advantest, a manufacturer of chip testing equipment, became the largest gainer in percentages and points on the index, after rising 4.32 percent.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 0.94 percent last night, compared to a very mixed performance for the three main Wall Street indexes.
Shipping company shares recorded the best performance among 33 industrial groups on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, after rising 2.01 percent.
Of the 225 stocks listed on the index, 133 rose, 87 declined, and five remained stable.
