Small stocks boosting Japan's economy

Smaller Japanese stocks have posted returns far in excess of the large industrial names so far this ...

Smaller Japanese stocks have posted returns far in excess of the large industrial names so far this year. The performance differential is striking, with the Japan 2nd Section Topix index, representative of the Japanese smaller capitalised companies, up 20.1% for the first half of the year. This is in contrast to a fall of 0.1% for the Nikkei 225 index, reflecting the relatively sluggish performance of Japan's industrial giants. Indications are that this trend has a lot further to run, as the smart money continues to chase the high growth areas in Japan's emerging service sector. On an i...