Japan's Nikkei climbed to a one-week high on Wednesday, boosted by the rise in chip-related stocks to keep up with their US peers, while first-half earnings from companies such as Sony and Honda boosted sentiment.

 

The Bank of Japan kept interest rates unchanged and lowered its price expectations, bolstering market expectations that low inflation would force the bank to maintain its massive incentive program at the moment.

 

The Nikkei <.N225> was up 2.2 percent at 2,920.46, the highest close since October 24.

 

Technology stocks and chip makers jumped after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 4.2 percent on Tuesday, helping to boost US chip makers.

 

TDK Corp. rose 6.1 percent, Tokyo Electron rose 3.6 percent and Advantest rose 13 percent.

 

Advantest raised its full-year profit forecast by 45 percent to 53 billion yen.

 

Analysts said investors were buoyed by strong expectations from Japanese manufacturing firms and concerns about profits were affected by a deepening trade dispute between the United States and China.

 

Sony Corp. rose 4.7 percent after the company boosted its annual profit forecast by 30 percent to a record.

 

Among other gainers on Wednesday was Honda Motor, which jumped 6.5 percent after the company raised its annual profit forecast by 11.3 percent to 790 billion yen ($ 7 billion) for the year ended March 2019, thanks to weak yen and strong sales of motorcycles.

 

In contrast to the rally, Chiyoda Corp fell 21 percent and was the biggest loser on the index after the engineering company cut its forecast for a operating profit loss of 86.5 billion yen for the year to March compared with a previous forecast of a loss of 11.5 billion yen in operating profit.

 

The broader Topix index gained 2.2 percent to 1,646.12 points.