The index falls 2.8% on the day, moving off the lows in the closing stages
At the lows for the day - about 15 minutes before the close - the index was poised to close below the March low and post its lowest close since September last year. The good news is that technically price managed to close above the March low as stocks recouped some losses into the close. However, from its October peak the Nikkei has fallen by 16.6% now and is down by 10.4% on the year.
The bad news though is that its sister index - which gives a fair an accurate reflection of Japanese stocks as well - the Topix has entered into a bear market after falling more than 20% from its January high.
And that is a really bad signal for Japanese equities moving forward and will surely continue to keep the yen underpinned as long as sentiment continues to sour. As the Nikkei also looks poised to enter into a bear market, expect yen pairs to continue to be weighed down over the coming sessions.
