What is Nikkei 225? History, Price & Reasons to Trade

For those unaware, in the mid-to-late 1980s, the Japanese economy experienced one of the biggest financial bubbles that the world has ever seen. The Nikkei 225 is a major stock market index that lists the 225 largest companies by price weighting on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The Nikkei Stock Average, the Nikkei 225 is used around the globe as the premier index of Japanese stocks. More than 70 years have passed since the commencement of its calculation, which represents the history of Japanese economy after the World War II. The Nikkei 225 is a price-weighted equity index, which consists of 225 stocks in the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. You would essentially need to purchase 225 individual stocks, which would not only be expensive, but highly complicated.

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Historical Prices for NIKKEI 225

Moreover, you can then sell your ETF on the open marketplace, just like you would with a company stock. The index fund will most commonly replicate the performance of the Nikkei 225 by actually purchasing the underlying shares of the companies that make the index. As noted above, this would be a complex task for an individual investor to perform independently, however institutions have the required framework to do this. Initially, the TSE was founded as a marketplace for the exchange of bonds the government had issued to samurai.

Much like in the case of other major stock exchanges, the Tokyo Stock Exchange bridges the gap between corporations and investors. Through the use of real-time electronic tracking, the exchange details the current trading prices available on each of the companies it lists. Japan experienced a major asset bubble in the late 1980s when the government used fiscal and monetary stimuli https://www.investorynews.com/ to counteract a recession caused by the Japanese yen’s 50% appreciation during the first part of the decade. At the height of the bubble, the TSE accounted for 60% of global stock market capitalization. The historical performance of the Japanese stock exchange and thus, the Nikkei 225 index, is potentially one of the most interesting talking points with respect to major indexes.

However, this only includes blue-chip companies, and thus, excludes the likes of ETFs and other non-equity based securities. The Nikkei 225 is the Japanese stock market index that features the most https://www.topforexnews.org/ prominent businesses in the Japanese economy. In this piece, we explore what the Nikkei 225 represents, its history, the companies that constitute the index, and how to approach trading it.

Furthermore, some index funds or ETFs will even attempt to beat the official index, by making some weighting adjustments. If you thought the bubbles of the Dot.com boom of the late 1990s or the housing market crash of 2008 were bad, nothing gets close to what Japan experienced. In fact, to give you an idea as to just how artificial the bubble was, in the 15 years prior to 1990, the Nikkei stock index increased by more than 900%. At the very top of the Nikkei, market capitalizations are dominated by Toyota Motor Corporation, SoftBank Group and NTT Docomo, which at the time of writing have a total cap of 21T Yen, 11T Yen and 8T Yen, respectively. In its most basic form, the Nikkei 225, or simply the ‘Nikkei’, is a mechanism that tracks the performance of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It is important to recognize that because there are now more than 3,500 individual companies listed on the main Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei instead tracks a limited number of equities.

Derived Indexes

Nikkei Inc. has developed and calculated its own indexes from various perspective, looking at changes in society and markets. The Nikkei was established as part of the rebuilding and industrialization of Japan in the aftermath of the Second World War. Constituent stocks are ranked by share price, rather than by market capitalization as is common in most indexes. The composition of the Nikkei is reviewed every September, and any needed changes take place in October.

As such, you would instead by best utilizing either an index fund or exchange traded fund (ETF). First and foremost, tracking the performance of more than 3,500 companies would be a logistical nightmare, especially when one considers the amount of trading that occurs on a daily basis. However, and perhaps more importantly, the vast majority of the Japanese stock marketplace is dominate by the companies sat at the very top of the market capitalization rankings. Launched back in 1950, the Tokyo Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange in Japan, and the fourth largest in the world by market capitalization. Located in the capital city of Tokyo, the stock exchange lists more than 3,500 companies across multiple industries. Leveraged trading in foreign currency or off-exchange products on margin carries significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors.

1. As noted above, this would be a complex task for an individual investor to perform independently, however institutions have the required framework to do this.
2. According to the Nikkei 225 “Stock Average Fact Sheet,” the Nikkei 225 is calculated every 5 seconds while the Tokyo Stock Exchange is open.
3. The Nikkei Stock Average, the Nikkei 225 is used around the globe as the premier index of Japanese stocks.

One of the leading index funds in this respect is the Daiwa Japan Nikkei 225 Index Fund. With an expense ratio of just 0.16%, this particular fund is one of the most competitively priced in the space. The fund aims to replicate the performance of the Nikkei 225 by purchasing the shares that constitute the index. As such, you will need to use a third party institution that tracks the Nikkei 225 index themselves. Each institution will have their own underlying mechanisms in their attempt to track the official index.

What are the Nikkei companies?

In addition to government bonds, the TSE also acted as an exchange for gold and silver currencies. The Nikkei is short for Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average, the leading and most-respected index of Japanese stocks. It is a price-weighted index composed of Japan’s top 225 blue-chip companies traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The Nikkei is equivalent to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) Index in the United States. An alternative avenue that you can take to invest in the performance of the Nikkei 225 is to purchase an ETF.

The shares included in it are weighted according to price; the index level represents the average of the shares included in it. Dividend payments and stock market turnover are not considered when calculating the index. The Nikkei average has deviated sharply from the textbook model of stock averages, which grow at a steady exponential rate. During the Japanese asset price bubble, the average hit its bubble-era record high on 29 December 1989, when it reached an intraday high of 38,957.44, before closing at 38,915.87, having grown sixfold during the decade. Therefore, and as the name suggests, the Nikkei 225 includes 225 of Japan’s biggest companies. In order to determine what companies to list, the Nikkei will typically select its constituents by the size of their market capitalization.

According to the Nikkei 225 “Stock Average Fact Sheet,” the Nikkei 225 is calculated every 5 seconds while the Tokyo Stock Exchange is open.

Moreover, the highest record the Nikkei 225 index has been able to set since its 1989 heights was the 24,270 points it hit in December 2018. Before the economic downturn came to fruition,  in 1989 the Nikkei peaked at 38,916 points. The scary thing is that almost 30 years later, the Nikkei 225 has still not got anywhere close to the all-time highs it experienced in 1989. The following chart shows the history of the Nikkei 225 in the 21st century, highlighting the major fundamental events that shaped its price. The Tokyo Price Index—frequently referred to as TOPIX—is another widely followed index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. While the Nikkei is an index of 225 selected stocks from the TSE, the TOPIX is an index that includes all the stocks in the TSE.

What is Nikkei 225? History, Price & Reasons to Trade

It is not possible to directly purchase an index, but there are several exchange-traded funds (ETFs) whose components correlate to the Nikkei. ETFs that track the Nikkei and trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange include Blackrock’s iShares Nikkei 225 and Nomura Asset Management Nikkei 225 Exchange Traded Fund. The MAXIS Nikkei 225 Index ETF is a dollar-denominated fund that trades on the New York Stock Exchange. When you purchase an ETF, the process works in a very similar way to that of a conventional equity. The reason for this is that the market value of the Nikkei 225 ETF will rise and fall throughout the day.