Nikkei ends year with 12% loss after logging first annual fall since 2011

Dec 29, 2018 | News On Japan

Dec 29, 2018 (Japan Times) - The benchmark Nikkei average snapped a six-year winning streak Friday to end 2018 down more than 12 percent after being pressured by selling following a spike the previous day.

The 225-issue Nikkei average fell 62.85 points, or 0.31 percent, to close the yearâ€™s final session at 20,014.77. It shot up 750.56 points on Thursday.

The key yardstick on the Tokyo Stock Exchange marked its first annual fall under the second administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office in December 2012 touting Abenomics, his reflationist policies based on fiscal spending, radical monetary easing and vows of structural reforms.

For the whole of 2018, the Nikkei average sank 2,750.17 points, or 12.08 percent.

The Topix index of all first-section issues finished down 7.54 points, or 0.50 percent, at 1,494.09 after gaining 70.16 points the previous day. For the year, the index plunged 323.47 points, or 17.80 percent.

Brokers said the marketâ€™s downside was apparently underpinned by purchases of exchange-traded funds by the Bank of Japan.

Stocks were hurt by â€œintermittent selling on a rally,â€ Chihiro Ota, general manager for investment research and investor services at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., said, expressing his view that Fridayâ€™s trading was led by individual investors.

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