The Tokyo stock market has crawled out of a corrective phase, with the key market indexes recouping much of their recent losses.
In retrospect, the volatile trading drove down the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Topix index of all first-section issues to 5,500 last week. This level is close to the break-even point of shares held by major financial institutions, indicating the downturn was about to run its course.
The weakness of Tokyo stocks in recent weeks was attributable largely to the reshuffling of the 225-issue Nikkei average. In terms of market capitalization, the replacement of 30 of the Nikkei components is widely seen as having had the same effect as replacing half of the 225 issues.