Nikkei briefly dives over 4,100 points in afternoon

The 225-issue Nikkei stock average temporarily plunged over 4,100 points Friday afternoon due to selling of issues related to semiconductors and artificial intelligence following overnight falls in their U.S. counterparts. At 1:41 p.m., the index of 225 major issues listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime section stood at 62,704.60, down 4,130.94 points, or 6.18%, from Thursday’s closing. It slipped below 63,000 for the first time in about a month on an intraday basis. In the Tokyo market, memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings and other key Nikkei component issues came under selling pressure. “We can’t help thinking that the boom in generative AI-related stocks is about to end,” an official of a bank-affiliated securities firm said. “There was selling to lock in profits ahead of upcoming earnings reports in the United States and Japan,” a market source said.