Tekscend Photomask's shares jump nearly 13% in Tokyo debut on tech optimism

TOKYO (Reuters) -Shares of Tekscend Photomask climbed nearly 13% in their Tokyo debut on Thursday, riding the wave of gains in Japan's tech sector. The photomask manufacturer, which produces masks used to transfer patterns onto semiconductor wafers, raised 138.9 billion yen ($920 million) by pricing its initial public offering at 3,000 yen per share, the top of the range. Shares of Tekscend Photomask began trading nearly 20% above the IPO price at 3,570 yen apiece, before paring gains to finish the day at 3,380 yen per share. The Nikkei 225 share average rose 1.27%, supported by upbeat performances in tech stocks, including SoftBank Group, which jumped 8.6% and Tokyo Electron, up 4.1%. Tech stocks in Japan have been buoyant, supported by global enthusiasm for companies expected to benefit from rising investments in artificial intelligence. Toppan Holdings carved out the business three years ago with private equity firm Integral. Prior to the listing, Toppan had a 50.1% stake in Tekscend Photomask, with Integral holding the remaining 49.9%. ($1 = 150.9000 yen) (Reporting by Sam Nussey, Miho Uranaka and Anton Bridge; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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