Japanese shares rise after 3 days of falls; Eisai slumps on drug delay
TOKYO, April 23 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks rose on Thursday, as sellers covered their positions after Wall Street shares rebounded overnight on the promise of more U.S. government aid to ease the economic pain inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Nikkei share average rose 0.67% to 19,265.95 after three straight sessions of losses. The broader Topix gained 0.53% to 1,414.30.
Among the top gainers were shares that have been badly hit so far this year, including advertisement firm Dentsu Group , retailer J.Front Retailing and oil development firm Inpex. They rose 4.8%, 4.4%, 4.2% respectively.
Shares of some companies related to the semi-conductor industry also jumped after their U.S. peers gained sharply, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor index surging 5.9% in its biggest one-day leap since April 6.
Fanuc Corp rose 3.4%, while Alps Alpine gained 2.8%.
Transport equipment companies rose 1%, with Honda Motor Co Ltd gaining 2.3%.
The index of Mothers start-up shares rose 3.3%, erasing losses made earlier this week.
CyberAgent climbed 8.6% after the company reported strong growth in quarterly profit on brisk gaming business.
On the other hand, drugmaker Eisai lost 7.4% after Biogen Inc on Wednesday delayed the filing for marketing approval of its experimental Alzheimer's disease drug developed jointly with Eisai.
Biogen said it needed more time to prepare the data before submission. (Reporting by Tokyo Markets Team; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
