Shares in Nintendo soared over 15.5 per cent to a six-month high in early trading in Tokyo on Friday on the prospect that the maker of Super Mario could begin selling its Switch video-gaming console in China for the first time.
On Thursday, after navigating a long and complex negotiation with the authorities in Guangdong province, China’s Tencent won a landmark approval that would, in theory, allow it to sell the Switch machine throughout the world’s largest games market.
Tencent’s shares fell about 1 per cent on Friday but have risen 24.7 per cent in 2019 as the company has recovered from the Chinese freeze on new game approvals which hit its stock last year.