Nikkei ends at 1-1/2 year-high amid shareholder return boosts

TOKYO, May 12 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei closed at a 1-1/2-year high on Friday, led by gains in chip-related heavyweights, as investors cheered announcements of domestic firms' shareholder returns at the peak of the earnings season.

The Nikkei share average ended 0.9% higher at 29,388.30, its highest close since November 2021. For the week, the index added 0.79%.

The broader Topix advanced 0.64% to 2,096,39 and posted a 1% weekly gain.

"Corporate outlook was not necessarily all good. We saw some positive outcome but there were disappointments too," said Seiichi Suzuki, chief equity market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute.

"But many companies have announced share buybacks and other measures to give returns to shareholders. That raised investor sentiment and boosted the market."

Mitsubishi Corp and its peers this week flagged continued rewards to shareholders this financial year - either with hikes to dividends or stock buybacks or both. Shares of Mitsubishi slipped 0.02% on Friday but posted a 6.3% weekly gain.

Heavyweight Tokyo Electron Ltd cut early losses to jump 3.21% even as Japan's leading maker of semiconductor manufacturing tools flagged a lower-than-expected annual operating profit.

Its peer Advantest Corp gained 3.32%.

Bucking the trend, SoftBank Group Corp fell 3.68% and weighed on the Nikkei the most after the Japanese technology investor posted an annual loss that was more than three times as big as market expectations.

Sharp Corp tanked 8.69% after the electronics maker reported a surprise $1.9 billion loss on writedowns of its panel display business and other assets. (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Varun H K and Uttaresh Venkateshwaran)