[Nikkei Recap] Sep 28, 2026: Nikkei 225 Falls 486 Points to 65,877 as Chip Stocks Slide and Profit-Taking Hits

Hey everyone, Hirokichi here. Let’s take a look back at today’s Tokyo stock market, September 28, 2026. Here’s the headline: the Nikkei 225 closed down 486 yen from the previous session at 65,877 yen, breaking a six-session winning streak. The market opened higher, carrying over momentum from last week, but profit-taking pushed it lower through the afternoon session, and the index closed near its low for the day — a somewhat weak finish overall.

Today’s index moves

Here’s a summary of the main indexes.

What this table shows is that while the large-cap-driven Nikkei 225 and TOPIX both declined, the Growth 250 index — which tracks smaller, newer companies — actually rebounded after two down sessions, supported by gains in space-related stocks. So this wasn’t a case of the entire market selling off uniformly. (I couldn’t confirm the exact closing level and change for the Growth 250 by the time of writing, since data providers hadn’t caught up yet — I’ll update this once the figure is confirmed.)

The Nikkei had climbed almost in a straight line from 64,136 yen on September 17 to 66,364 yen on September 25 — six sessions of gains in a row. Today marked a pause in that momentum. Given how much the index had risen over the prior week, it’s a natural moment for investors to lock in profits.

As the chart above shows, the index peaked at 66,364 yen on September 25 before pulling back today. That said, it’s still up more than 1,700 yen from the September 17 level, so this looks like a short-term adjustment rather than a trend change. For more on that session, see [Nikkei Recap] Sep 25, 2026: Nikkei 225 Jumps 850 Points to 66,364 as Chip and Bank Stocks Lead a Five-Day Winning Streak.

What moved the market today

Three main factors were behind today’s decline.

(1) Rising domestic long-term interest rates: Japan’s 10-year government bond yield touched 3.095% at one point today. When yields rise, growth stocks and high-P/E names — whose value depends heavily on future profits — tend to look more expensive by comparison, since those future profits get discounted more heavily.

(2) A decline in South Korea’s KOSPI, which is heavy on semiconductor stocks: South Korea’s benchmark index fell, and that weakness spilled over into Tokyo’s own semiconductor-related names. Japanese and Korean chip stocks tend to move in tandem, so weakness overseas often triggers “sympathy selling” here.

(3) A calmer Wall Street after a firm session, but no fresh upside catalyst: On the last trading day before the weekend (September 25, US time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 478.64 points (+0.93%) to 51,828.62, snapping a four-day losing streak; the S&P 500 gained 39.28 points (+0.51%) to 7,743.41; and the Nasdaq Composite added 129.35 points (+0.48%) to close at 27,068.72 (source: Minkabu FX/Forex News). Falling oil prices and a pause in the rise of US Treasury yields supported the market, but for the week as a whole, a sharp climb in Treasury yields had weighed on sentiment — and that lingering caution seems to have carried over into Tokyo at the start of the new week.

On top of that, today (September 28) was the last day to buy shares and still qualify for interim dividends and shareholder perks for companies with a September fiscal half-year end. That tends to bring in some buying from income-focused investors, but it can also bring profit-taking from investors who already locked in their entitlement and are selling ahead of tomorrow’s ex-dividend adjustment. This supply-and-demand dynamic likely contributed to the market losing steam in the afternoon.

Today’s most talked-about stocks — and why

Based on each stock’s contribution to the Nikkei 225 (how many points it added or subtracted from the index), here are four names that stood out today.

As this table shows, the gains and losses from these names roughly offset each other, which is likely one reason the overall decline was contained to around 486 points.

SoftBank Group (9984): the Nikkei’s biggest single support today

SoftBank Group closed up 140 yen (+2.28%) at 6,290 yen, and was the single largest positive contributor to the index today, adding roughly 112.63 points. Given that the broader market was falling, I’d call this today’s standout name. The stock has recently been picked up on AI-related themes — its investment posture toward AI and the performance of its Arm holding both tend to work in its favor. I couldn’t pin down a single fresh news catalyst for today specifically, but with other chip-related names under pressure from the KOSPI decline, SoftBank’s stronger identity as an AI investment holding company may have drawn buyers on its own supply-and-demand dynamics. I can’t say this with certainty, but given how much weight this stock carries in the index, it’s worth watching how often a single name like this can offset a broader market decline.

Ibiden (4062): today’s biggest drag on the index

Ibiden, a major maker of semiconductor packaging substrates, fell 1,120 yen (-4.80%) to 22,225 yen, making it today’s single largest negative contributor to the Nikkei at roughly -75 points. Ibiden has been one of the stocks that climbed steadily this year on expectations for AI server-related substrate demand, and stocks driven heavily by expectations like this tend to see bigger swings in both directions. Today’s decline looks tied to the broader caution around chip stocks stemming from the KOSPI’s fall and rising domestic rates, and may also reflect profit-taking after the stock’s recent run-up. I couldn’t find a specific negative headline about the company itself — this looks mostly like a sector-wide pullback rather than something company-specific.

Kioxia Holdings (285A): fell in line with broader chip-stock weakness

Kioxia Holdings, a major memory chipmaker, closed down 1,300 yen (-2.33%) at 54,480 yen, contributing roughly -30.51 points to the index. Kioxia has been bought up heavily this year on expectations for AI-related memory demand, but it has also seen sharp pullbacks whenever the market starts to worry the rally has gotten ahead of itself. Today’s move looks mainly like sympathy selling tied to weaker US and Korean chip stocks — I didn’t find any new negative news about the company’s actual business. If anything, this kind of volatility just reflects how high expectations for this stock have become.

Fast Retailing (9983): a heavyweight stock that capped the index

Fast Retailing, the operator of Uniqlo, was mildly weaker, closing down 370 yen (-0.54%) at 68,250 yen. The percentage drop was small, but because it’s one of the highest-priced stocks on the exchange, its impact on the Nikkei 225 was disproportionately large at roughly -29.77 points. Today also happened to be the last day to qualify for September fiscal-half dividends and shareholder benefits, so some of the pressure may have come from investors who’d already locked in their entitlement selling to take profits.

The chart above makes it easy to see that SoftBank Group was the only name to hold onto gains, while the other three sank into negative territory. The declines in the two chip-related names, Ibiden and Kioxia, were especially large, which tells you today’s market theme was really “a pullback in semiconductor stocks.”

How I’m thinking about this as an individual investor

If you’re steadily continuing regular investment purchases, I honestly don’t think today’s 486-point drop is something to worry much about. The Nikkei had climbed more than 2,000 points between September 17 and 25, so this looks like a natural give-back after that run. In my view, stopping your regular contributions just because the market dropped on a day like today is more likely to hurt you over the long run than help.

For those trading more short-term, though, the volatility in chip-related names is worth paying attention to. Stocks like Ibiden and Kioxia, which have been bought on expectations, tend to swing hard in both directions. If you’re taking a position in this environment, I think it’s worth being more deliberate than usual about position sizing relative to how much these names can move.

What to watch from here

(1) The ex-dividend effect: Since today was the last day to qualify for September interim dividends and shareholder perks for many companies, tomorrow (September 29) is likely to see a mechanical drop in share prices as stocks go ex-dividend. The index itself could see some downward pressure from this as well.

(2) The US market and the semiconductor sector: Whether the chip-stock weakness that helped trigger today’s decline continues is worth watching — keep an eye on the US Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) and individual names like Kioxia and Ibiden.

(3) The level of domestic long-term interest rates: With long-term yields climbing toward the 3.1% area, how far this affects growth stocks and high-P/E names is likely to stay a key theme in the near term.

Let’s keep at it, slow and steady. See you tomorrow!

* This article is for informational purposes only and does not recommend any specific investment. Please make investment decisions at your own responsibility.

(Closing prices for the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX, along with US market, currency, and individual stock data referenced in this article, are based on reporting from Nikkei, Zaikei Shimbun, Kabushiki Shimbun Web, and Minkabu FX. The Growth 250 index’s closing level and Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market trading value and advancer/decliner counts could not be confirmed by the time of writing and are marked as pending.)

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