The Nikkei index recorded a sharp increase before falling back, with software stocks experiencing a heavy decline.

The Nikkei index fell on Wednesday, following a sharp increase in the previous trading day, as software developers followed their global peers in declining. The Nikkei 225 index fell by 0.78% to 54,293.36 points. The index had surged nearly 4% on Tuesday to reach a historic high, marking its largest single-day gain since October 25. The broader Topix index rose by 0.27% to 3,655.58 points. Software and system development companies saw declines, with NEC plummeting by 11.79%, Nomura Research Institute and Fujitsu both falling by over 7%. Overnight, heavy selling of European and American data analysis, professional services, and software companies intensified, with some investors attributing this to the recent release of Anthropic's new artificial intelligence chatbot. Shuutarou Yasuda, a market analyst at Tohoku Tokyo Information Lab, stated, "When American software companies faced selling, these Japanese domestic companies were not affected. But today, this wave finally hit them." Chip-related stocks also fell, with Advantest and Tokyo Electron both dropping by over 2%, weighing heavily on the Nikkei index. Recruit Holdings, which owns the job recruitment website Indeed, saw its stock price plummet by 10%. Despite maintaining expectations for annual profit and hardware sales, Nintendo's stock price still fell by 10.98%. The "Super Mario" maker announced a 23% jump in quarterly profits on Tuesday, largely thanks to strong sales of the Switch 2 gaming console. High-performance electronics and ceramic manufacturer Ibiden saw its stock price plummet by 14%, marking the largest percentage decline in the Nikkei index. Fiber optic cable manufacturers saw their stock prices rise, with Furukawa Electric and Fujikura rising by 7.3% and 4.7%, respectively.