Japanese markets climb to record high

Japanese markets climbed to a record high, with exporters and tech stocks leading the surge fueled by optimism over AI's potential and hopes for aggressive fiscal stimulus under the Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

The Nikkei average jumped 2.12 percent to 52,411.34, while the broader Topix index settled 0.94 percent higher at 3,331.83.

Tokyo Electron advanced 3.6 percent, Advantest rallied 3.9 percent, Hitachi jumped 7.2 percent and Socionext shares surged 16.7 percent.