It is hardly surprising that
Japanese equities have had 20 years of poor returns.
The sell - side is a business, and
Japanese equities have underperformed for so long that the sell - side has retreated (along with a good chunk of the buy - side), so our investment universe has no research coverage to speak of.
Since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reelection,
Japanese equities have surged to their highest level in 25 years.
Analysts told CNBC that they continued to favor bets that the yen would weaken and
Japanese equities would strengthen in the wake of the BOJ policy measures.
I expected that dollar - hedged returns for European and
Japanese equities would be better than stock market returns in the United States.
The rebound in European and
Japanese equities has been similar to that seen in the US.
Not exact matches
Twenty - three percent of respondents
had an «overweight» rating on
Japanese equities, the highest level seen in the last two years.
They could
have improved performance by simply buying and holding any asset class other than Asian emerging market or
Japanese equities.
The mere fact that Japan was now acting to reflate its economy meant that the sell yen, buy
Japanese equities trade that
has dominated markets in recent weeks remained intact, said ING's Condon.
Investors recognized that Abenomics was going to devalue the yen and thought that
would be good for
Japanese equities, explains Kremenstein.
«In a nutshell, we're bullish on
Japanese equities,» he says, adding that rising wages
would most benefit sectors such as real estate, insurance and media.
A stable or appreciating dollar
would likely prove a modest headwind for EM
equities and a tailwind for
Japanese stocks.
-RRB- to double its investment into
Japanese equities, other institutional investors
have committed approximately $ 250 billion.
On the heels of plans by the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) to double its investment into
Japanese equities, other institutional investors
have committed approximately $ 250 billion.
This helps explain our preference for European,
Japanese and emerging market (EM
equities), where valuations look more reasonable and gains
have been driven more by expected earnings growth.
In particular, I think
Japanese small - caps
have remained the outstanding anomaly in global
equity markets.
Currently, we
have positions in 8
Japanese equities, all of which are «small caps» and 5 of which lack sell - side analyst Continue Reading →
«If we start to see
equity markets selling off and volatility moving higher, the way that global capital flows move is there's usually repatriation of
Japanese investors
having overseas investments where they bring that money home, and U.S. investors also tend to bring their money home,» he said.
One of the victims of this risk - off move
has been
Japanese equities, which, as measured by the TOPIX, is roughly flat for the year to date through May 1 (in local currency).
A weaker yen
has typically boosted
Japanese equities in the past, and the last few months
have been no exception, as the chart below shows.
Kuroda's latest round of quantitative easing was announced the same day that Japan's $ 1.2 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund announced it
would double its investment in
Japanese and foreign
equities.
It
has admitted it will need to refinance its debt, which is supplied by its major
Japanese customer, Sojitz, and private
equity group Mount Kellet Capital Management.
As corporate Japan
has started to take advantage of recovering risk appetite, low yields and yen strength to invest abroad, opinions on valuation of
Japanese overseas acquisitions among listed firms
have now begun to diverge substantially between foreign investors in listed
Japanese stock and private
equity / venture capitalists.
His outlook
has changed drastically since he started his first job trading
Japanese markets in 1986: «What I walked into at that time was one of the greatest bull market bubbles the world
had ever seen, in the
Japanese equity market and real estate market.»
UK, eurozone,
Japanese and emerging market
equities have all returned close to 9.5 % a year1.
A stable or appreciating dollar
would likely prove a modest headwind for EM
equities and a tailwind for
Japanese stocks.
Japanese equities remain inexpensive even after outpacing the U.S. market year - to - date, as strong earnings momentum
has kept valuations in line.
Japanese and eurozone
equities have been powered by a combination of strong earnings growth and dividends.
-RRB- to double its investment into
Japanese equities, other institutional investors
have committed approximately $ 250 billion.
On the heels of plans by the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) to double its investment into
Japanese equities, other institutional investors
have committed approximately $ 250 billion.
Our analysis shows
Japanese equities remain far from a crowded trade as foreign investor flows into Japan
have recently subsided.
Over the 15 - year period ending in February 2018, encompassing the latter part of Japan's so - called «lost decades» of stagnant
equity returns, the equal - weight index
would have outperformed the cap - weighted
Japanese equity benchmark by a stonking Read more -LSB-...]
This helps explain our preference for European,
Japanese and emerging market (EM
equities), where valuations look more reasonable and gains
have been driven more by expected earnings growth.
Usonian Investments, a
Japanese equity manager located in Chicago and Tokyo,
has launched the Usonian Japan Value UCITS Fund on Skyline Umbrella Fund ICAV platform, with initial capital of GBP 73.7 million.»
In fact, the BoJ
has bought so many stocks and ETFs via QE that it's one of the planet's top holders of
Japanese equity.
For example, do
Japanese managers investing in large - cap U.S
equity have a harder time outperforming the benchmark than Canadian managers investing in the same opportunity set?
I
would say the same whether you were investing in gold bullion or Tesla stock or
Japanese equities.
Given the complexity of the deal (it required numerous regulatory consents, compliance with
Japanese stock exchange rules and unwinding multiple layers of financing), Graphite decided the least disruptive course of action
would be to follow KWM private
equity partners Laura Brunnen and Martin Bowen to Reed Smith.
SBI Holdings, a
Japanese financial services holding company and US - headquartered and pending regulated bitcoin derivatives exchange bcause LLC, announced today the closing of a Series A
equity round in which SBI Holdings
has agreed to be the lead investor.
Goldman Sachs specializes in offering foreign bond funds through a limited number of brokers, while Fidelity
has focused intensively on
Japanese equity and developed a wider pool of distributors.