Toyota Falls Behind as Kioxia Surges... Nikkei Breaks 68,000 for the First Time Ever

Kioxia Temporarily Rises to Second in Market Cap, SoftBank Holds Top Spot
Yen Returns to 160 Level Against Dollar as Government Intervention Concerns Resurface

Nikkei 225, Japan's leading stock index, set a new all-time closing high, driven by strong gains in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor-related stocks.

Nobuo Hayasaka, President of Kioxia, is ringing the opening bell at the Tokyo Stock Exchange listing ceremony. On the 3rd, Kioxia temporarily ranked second in market capitalization among Japanese listed companies during the trading session.

On June 3, the Nikkei index closed at 68,402, up 1,667 points or 2.5% from the previous trading day on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. This is the first time the Nikkei index has closed above the 68,000 mark.

The Tokyo Stock Price Index (TOPIX), which reflects the overall market trend and is based on the market capitalization of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, also hit a record high of 3,996.20.

On this day in the Tokyo market, buying was concentrated on AI and semiconductor-related stocks. Recently, AI-related stocks such as SoftBank Group have shown strong performance on the Japanese stock market, resulting in changes in the market capitalization rankings of major companies.

Kioxia, a NAND flash manufacturer, surged as much as 7% in the morning to reach 83,140 yen, compared to the previous trading day. As a result, its market capitalization briefly surpassed 45 trillion yen, making it the second-largest listed company in Japan by market capitalization, following SoftBank Group.

Toyota Motor, which had maintained its position as Japan's largest company for over 20 years, recently lost the top spot in market capitalization to SoftBank Group and was threatened for second place by Kioxia during the session. As of 10:03 a.m., Kioxia's share price fell to 78,690 yen, allowing Toyota to regain the second position.

Toyota's share price closed at 2,881 yen, up 1.30% from the previous trading day, maintaining its position as the second-largest company by market capitalization.

According to the Nikkei, Kioxia's mention of considering the introduction of progressive dividends and the possibility of a share buyback at its investor briefing the previous day supported the share price increase. At the investor briefing, Kioxia emphasized that the recent growth in performance is not due to temporary factors, explaining that long-term contracts with NAND flash customers are increasing.

AI data center component stocks were also strong. Murata Manufacturing, which produces multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) for AI data centers, saw its market capitalization surpass 20 trillion yen at one point during the session.

The weakness of the yen was again highlighted in the foreign exchange market. On this day, in the Tokyo foreign exchange market, the yen/dollar exchange rate reached as high as 160 yen per dollar before retreating to the upper 159-yen range.

On the 3rd, the yen/dollar exchange rate in the Tokyo foreign exchange market briefly approached 160 yen per dollar.

This is the first time since April 30 that the yen/dollar exchange rate has reached the 160-yen level. The exchange rate, which had previously fallen due to large-scale yen-buying intervention by the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan, has now returned to pre-intervention levels.

From April 28 to May 27, the Japanese Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan carried out a total of 11.7349 trillion yen in foreign exchange interventions over the course of a month. This was the largest intervention in history.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that dollar buying is accelerating due to uncertainties in the Middle East, and that vigilance regarding further foreign exchange intervention by the Japanese government is growing.

On this day, the Japanese government finalized a supplementary budget of 3.1135 trillion yen at a cabinet meeting to respond to high inflation originating from the Middle East.

The entire budget will be financed by the issuance of deficit-covering government bonds. However, the Japanese government stated that it may be able to avoid increasing the total amount of government bond issuance by utilizing increased tax revenues and other measures.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, in submitting the supplementary budget, for the first time announced plans to gradually reduce subsidies aimed at curbing rising gasoline prices. She stated, "We will flexibly review the methods, including the subsidy unit price."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.