Nikkei 225 Index

The Nikkei 225 is the leading index for the Tokyo stockmarket. It was formerly known as the Nikkei-Dow index.

The Nikkei 225 is published by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper and like the Dow-Jones Industrial Average on which it was modelled it is a price-weighted index. So a move in the share price of a small company may have as great an influence on the days price movements as a comparable move in the price of a large one. This factor is heightened in the case of the Nikkei by the presence in the index of a number of old-line manufacturing firms which are now much less important than they used to be.

From time to time the authorities in Tokyo attempt to shift the markets attention away from the Nikkei 225 towards broader more modern indices such as the TOPIX and the Nikkei 350. So far however this has proved unsuccessful.

The record all time high for the Nikkei is 38915 reached on December 29th 1989.

See Also

Stockmarket Centre

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2009-02-17 00:00:00 © Moneyextra.com