Five of the Best: Japanese small caps to play the recovery

Pictet Asset Management's Adrian Hickey, head of Japanese equities, highlights five attractively valued small-cap stocks set to benefit from the nation's post-earthquake reconstruction spend.

According to Hickey, who manages the £55m Pictet Japanese Equity Opportunities fund, the region's small-cap sector has been completely overlooked by investors, causing valuations of Japanese small-cap companies to fall to historic lows. 1. Tocalo: Major producers of semiconducter production equipment, such as Tokyo Electron, rely on Tocalo for its leading-edge thermal spray technology. Tocalo trades on a single-digit price-to-earnings ratio and has a strong balance sheet. 2. Nittoku Engineering is the global leader in high-end coil winding equipment. As consumer electronic products be...