TOKYO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Japanese shares closed at a near 30-year high on Wednesday, as Britain's COVID-19 vaccine rollout and seeming progress over a U.S. stimulus deal boosted hopes of a swift global economic recovery, while upbeat domestic machinery data also buoyed sentiment.
The benchmark Nikkei share average .N225 rose 1.33% to 26,817.94, its highest closing since April 17, 1991. The broader Topix .TOPX rose 1.17% to 1,779.42.
SoftBank Group Corp 9984.T shares did most of the uplifting in the afternoon trade, jumping as much as 7% on a Bloomberg News report that the conglomerate was considering buying back shares to boost Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son's stake. the S&P and Nasdaq indexes notched record highs. .N
Britain on Tuesday became the first Western nation to begin a wide vaccination campaign, and on encouraging COVID-19 vaccine news from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) JNJ.N and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) PFE.N . market sentiment further, data showed Japan's core machinery orders rebounded sharply in October from the previous month's drop. 17.1% jump was the largest month-on-month rise since comparable data became available in 2005, and far exceeded economists' forecast of 2.8% in a Reuters poll.
"The strong data could lead to overall firmness in the manufacturing industry, as core machinery orders are leading indicators for capital spending," said Kiyoshi Ishigane, chief fund manager at Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co, adding that cyclical machinery and material sectors outperformed.
Machinery companies Komatsu 6301.T , SMC Corp 6273.T and Fanuc Corp 6954.T climbed between 2.27% and 2.98%.
Other sectors on the main bourse followed suit, with Paper and pulp .IPAPR.T and textiles .ITXTL.T rose 2.43% and 1.56%, respectively.
Semiconductors tracked their U.S. peers higher. Advantest Corp 6857.T rose nearly 1.3%, while SUMCO 3436.T spiked 5.41%
Tokyo Dome Corp 9681.T slipped 4.4%, after property developer Mitsui Fudosan 8801.T said Oasis Management was willing to tender shares of the ballpark operator to it. Mothers Index .MTHR of start-up firm shares bucked the overall trend to decline 1.39%.