The Topix has become less dependent on how Wall Street’s S&P 500 moves recently, according to Bloomberg. Correlation between the two indices has now fallen below zero, which means that there is a greater chance that the indices move in the opposite direction than in the same direction.
According to Masanari Takada at JP Morgan, one explanation is that investors have become more interested in stocks that are considered undervalued by the market, of which there are more in Japan than in the United States.
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s Hang Seng was weakest in the morning trade, while Shanghai’s and Shenzhen’s respective composite indices lost a few tenths of a percent during the first two hours of trading.
The Seoul Stock Exchange’s Kospi also remains in the red in the first half of the trading day, down about a third of a percent, while Taiwan’s weighted index lost 0.2 percent at 11 after moving on both sides of the line.