Nikkei 225

The Nikkei 225 is the leading stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It is calculated each day by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) newspaper since 1950.

Stocks are weighted by giving an equal weighting based on a par value of 50 yen per share. It is designed to reflect the overall market, with no specific weighting of industries. Stocks are reviewed annually in September, with changes made at the beginning of October. Changes may also take place if a stock is found to be ineligible for a stock average.

The most highly traded companies in the fund are: Mizuho Financial (banking), Mitsubishi UJF Financial (banking), Nomura Holdings (real estate), Nippon Steel, Toshiba (electric machinery), Fujitsu (electric machinery), Sumitomo Metals (steel), Sumitomo Trust (banking), Nissan (automotive), Mitsubishi Motors (automotive) and Sumitomo (trading company).

The Tokyo Stock Exchange is the second-largest exchange market in the world by market value, behind only the New York Stock Exchange. It has more than 2,400 listed companies with a capitalization of more than $4 trillion.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange was established in 1878. It was combined with 10 other stock exchanges in major Japanese cities to form a single Japanese Stock Exchange, which operated until shortly after the bombing of Nagasaki. The Tokyo Stock Exchange reopened under its current name in 1949 following a new securities exchange act.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange experienced a meteoric rise from 1983 to 1990 and at its height accounted for more than 60 percent of the world's stock market capitalization. The trading floor of the Tokyo Stock Exchange switched to electronic trading for all transactions in 2000.

The London Stock Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange announced a joint venture Tokyo-based market in July 2008. It will be based on the LSE's Alternative Investment Market.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange announced in November 2008 that it would launch its next-generation trading system in January 2010. The system is called "Arrowhead" and will replace a system that has suffered through several high-profile failures over the last few years. The trading participants will test the system for six months before it rolls out. The new system will handle all equities such as stocks and convertible bonds, with a fill time of around 10 milliseconds.

The government has been troubled by problems experienced by the exchange. There was a problem with the software in 2005 that caused morning trading to be halted. In 2006 the computer system was stressed close to capacity and forced trading to cease 20 minutes before the close of the day.

Nikkei 225 Articles - by BetterTrades