Japan's Topix Falls 20% From 2007 High, Signaling Bear Market

By Elizabeth Stanton


Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Japan became the first of the world's 10 biggest stock markets to enter a bear market when the Topix index declined 20 percent from its 2007 peak.

The 39-year-old Topix, the broadest gauge of equity prices in the world's second-largest economy, fell 2.1 percent yesterday to 1,438.72, the lowest since October 2005 and down 20.8 percent from its 2007 high of 1,816.97 on Feb. 26.

Japanese companies are struggling with slowing economic growth in the U.S., their largest market for exports, the yen's appreciation and record crude oil prices. The Topix decline from a 15-year high in February signals the government's efforts to revive the economy from more than a decade of inconsistent growth, have hit a snag, investors said.

``Performance potential is limited by a deteriorating economic outlook, both foreign and domestic,'' said Florence Barjou, Paris-based strategist at Lyxor Asset Management, which oversees $100 billion.

The Nikkei-225 Stock Average, created in 1949, is just short of bear market territory. It fell 2.5 percent yesterday to 14,837.66, the lowest since July 2006 and down 18.8 percent from a six-year high of 18,261.98, also on Feb. 26.

The Nikkei is a price-weighted average of 225 Japanese companies including Toyota Motor Corp, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and NTT Docomo Inc. with a median market value of 748.9 billion yen ($6.89 billion). The Topix is a capitalization- weighted index of 1,719 companies with a median market value of 469.8 trillion yen.

Less Than Stellar

The Topix decline ``would be an official bear market so to speak, but Japan hasn't been an area of stellar growth for 10 years,'' said Paul Hickey, managing partner at Bespoke Investment Group LLC in Harrison, New York.

Most stock markets have fallen this month, with the U.S. Standard & Poor's 500 Index down 8.6 percent, on pace for its worst month since September 2002. The declines reflect expectations that investment losses created by the biggest slump in housing since 1991 are curbing growth in the world's largest economy.

The MSCI World Index of developed-country shares is down 7.9 percent from a record on Oct. 31, and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index has fallen 11 percent from its high on Oct. 29.

Toyota, the Japanese company with the largest market value, fell 2.8 percent yesterday to a 16-month low amid concern U.S. sales will slow. Toyota is the second-biggest auto seller in the U.S. behind General Motors Corp.

Rising Yen

The yen has strengthened against all 16 major currencies since mid-year, making Japanese products more expensive in other countries. Against the dollar it has gained 9.8 percent, reaching a more than two-year high of 108.51 per dollar yesterday.

Losses in global credit-markets are fueling the yen's rise by spurring investors to sell higher-yielding assets that were purchased with yen borrowed at low interest rates and sold. The Bank of Japan's overnight call rate, the main rate at which banks lend to one another, is 0.5 percent, the lowest among the major economies.

Record crude oil prices, a problem for all manufacturing economies, are a particular disadvantage in Japan, which imports almost all of the oil it uses. Crude oil futures touched a record $99.29 a barrel in New York Mercantile Exchange trading yesterday, and are up 62 percent in the past year.

The Bank of Japan on Oct. 31 cut its growth estimate for the year ending in March to 1.8 percent from 2.1 percent. Reflecting reduced expectations for economic growth, the yield on 10-year Japanese government bonds yesterday fell to a 23-month low of 1.439 percent.

Investors in Japan's stock market have experienced worse over the past two decades than the drop from this year's peaks. In 1990, the Topix lost almost 40 percent of its value and the Nikkei lost almost 39 percent.