Tokyo: Japan's Nikkei index reversed course on Thursday after briefly surpassing the 60,000-point level, as investors took profits amid ongoing uncertainty over the situation in West Asia. The Nikkei fell 0.75 percent to 59,140.23 points at the close, after touching its highest level at 60,013.98 points earlier in the day. The broader Topix index declined 0.76 percent to 3,716.38 points.

According to Qatar News Agency, the Nikkei has erased all its losses since the start of the war between the United States and Iran on February 28, although the gains were driven by a small group of artificial intelligence-related stocks, such as SoftBank Group and Advantest. In Japan, semiconductor-related stocks gave up their early gains, while shares of Advantest, a chip testing equipment maker, and Tokyo Electron, a semiconductor manufacturing equipment company, were unchanged at the close.

Shares of SoftBank Group, which invests in technology, pared gains to rise 3.86 percent. Of the 1,600 stocks on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main market, 21 percent rose, 75 percent fell, and 2 percent were unchanged.