Nikkei bounces back from four day losing run

The Nikkei has broken a four-day losing streak by ending today's (March 4th) trading session up for the day.

Having been down for four days in a row as investors grew increasingly nervous about the ongoing political instability in Ukraine, the Nikkei rose by 0.5 per cent to close at 14,721.48.

This year has been a difficult one for the Nikkei so far, which was up by more than 50 per cent over the course of last year, meaning it outperformed global rivals such as the Dow Jones in the US and the FTSE 100 in the UK with ease.

But the situation in Ukraine has been damaging to markets all over the world, with Russia taking advantage of the political unrest in the European country to move military forces into the Crimea region, which has a strong Russian population.

2014 drops

The Nikkei is still down for the year to date by a significant amount, losing ten per cent of its overall value since the start of t2014, reports Reuters. This means it is among the worst performing major markets in the world so far in 2014, a sharp contrast to its gains recorded in the last 12 months.

After the end of the cash market today, there was a further 0.8 per cent gain for the Nikkei. There was also an increase recorded by the broader Topix index, which rose by 0.6 per cent for the day, ending the session at 1,204.11 in thin trade. Volume also fell to its lowest level so far this year on the index as investors held back from making a move.

Completing a clean sweep of gains for the main Japanese indexes, the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 was also up by 0.6 per cent to end the day at 10,892.99. The market was set up earlier in the year and comprises companies with high return on equity and strong corporate governance.

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