Asia Markets

Japan's Nikkei 225 closes at record high as Asian stock markets mostly rise

Key Points
  • Japan's markets hit new records as the Nikkei looks set to continue riding the "Takaichi trade."
  • South Korea's Kospi started strongly, but pared gains as the day wore on
  • Australia failed to notch its third straight day of gains.
A poster of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi displayed at the Liberal Democratic Party's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. Photographer: Toru Hanai/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Japan's Nikkei 225 continued its post-election rally and reached new highs on Tuesday, amid gains in the broader Asian markets.

The Japanese market continues to ride the "Takaichi trade" in the wake of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's landslide victory in the Lower House.

The Nikkei 225 rose 2.28% to a new closing high of 57,650.54, while the Topix gained 1.9% to finish at a record of 3,855.28.

Shares of Softbank Group Corp spiked as much as 11.95% on Tuesday after its subsidiary company upgraded its full-year forecasts for its financial year ending March 31, closing at a 10.68% gain. This follows a 6.3% gain on Monday.


South Korea's Kospi rose marginally to 5,301.69, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell into negative territory, dropping 1.1% to 1,115.2.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 0.58% and ended at 27,183.15, and mainland China's CSI 300 climbed 0.11% to 4,724.3

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 ended flat at 8,867.4.

Overnight in the U.S., tech stocks powered the S&P 500 to back-to-back gains, with the broad-based index rising 0.47%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was marginally up to a record high of 50,135.87, and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.9%.

—CNBC's Sean Conlon contributed to this report.

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