(Bloomberg) -- Shares of Japanese semiconductor-related companies jumped Thursday after the US government was reported to be weighing lighter-than-expected restrictions on sales of chip equipment and AI memory semiconductors to China.
Tokyo Electron Ltd., which makes chip manufacturing machines, climbed as much as 10% following the news, its sharpest rise since August, with fellow semiconductor equipment maker Kokusai Electric Corp. surging 23% at one point.
“The news is a positive for Japanese chip stocks — anything with relatively high China sales weightings,” said Andrew Jackson, head of Japan equity research at Ortus Advisors.
Along with Tokyo Electron and Kokusai, other chip equipment producers like Towa Corp., which rose 6.2%, and Screen Holdings Co., which jumped 9.6%, are also winning out, Jackson added.
The Biden administration plans to blacklist fewer suppliers to China’s Huawei Technologies Co. than previously expected, according to people familiar with the matter. The US will also not add ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc., which is working on AI memory chip technology, to its entity list, the people said.
However, with a change of administration in the US looming in January, the boost to Japanese chipmakers could be short-lived, “depending on how far the incoming Trump administration follows the same, more dovish tone,” Jackson said.
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