Japanese markets offering 'best opportunities since tech bubble burst'

Financials appealing to managers

Japanese stockmarkets have witnessed huge peaks and troughs so far in 2016 as the region's equity markets continue to feel the full force of a slowdown in China and global economic uncertainty.

Although the swings have calmed more recently, the Topix and Nikkei 225 have both posted intra-day swings of 5% this year, and are down significantly year to date - around 11% each in sterling terms to 4 March, compared to the FTSE 100's loss of around 1%. These falls are despite the Bank of Japan's (BoJ) best efforts to boost the economy by cutting interest rates to negative levels in January. According to Neptune's George Boyd-Bowman, assistant manager to Chris Taylor on the £358m Japan Opportunities fund, the country has been "caught in the cross fire" as the global downturn in sen...