Japan

Japan's Nikkei 225 index has closed down 1.5% as investors took profits ahead of the conclusion of a key central bank meeting tomorrow.

Japanese markets have jumped almost 5% in the first three weeks of the year - almost unheard of for the region - in anticipation of a reversal of the decade and half long slump into deflation.

Economist and renowned commentator on Japan, Arcus Investment's Peter Tasker, said in the last 20 years the country has been through the most severe and prolonged bear market ever seen.

The Japanese government has approved a fresh 10.3 trillion yen ($116bn; £72bn) stimulus package to shore up its flagging economy.

Ruffer's flagship investment trust has made "painfully slow" progress in 2012, held back by protective investments in the US dollar, put options, and gold mining shares.

BENCHMARKS

Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM)'s chairman Jim O'Neill outlines five encouraging signs from the global economy and asks whether 2013 will be the year investors ditch fixed income in favour of equities.

Schroders Private Bank has highlighted the three areas of the market it expects to outperform this year, pointing to Japan, UK property, and commodities as potential winners.

A convincing election win by Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party(LDP) boosted Japanese equities and caused the yen to weaken.

Asian equity boutique Coupland Cardiff is set to add a Japanese income fund to its range in the New Year.