Bloomberg – Japanese stocks will rebound from their biggest slump in almost five years because faster economic growth at home is boosting profits even as central banks raise interest rates globally, some hedge fund investors say.
“Don’t worry about Japanese stocks; it’s time to buy,” Hitoshi Kudo, who helps manage about $10.7 billion as head of alternative investments at Nomura Blackrock Asset Management, said in an interview at a hedge-fund conference in Tokyo on June 13. “The fundamentals of companies are getting better.”
Shares globally have slumped the past month on concern that central banks will keep raising interest rates to tame inflation, damping consumer spending and hurting corporate earnings.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average has dropped 19 percent since reaching an almost six-year high on April 7. The benchmark has lost 16 percent this quarter, amounting to the biggest decline since a 25 percent plunge in the third quarter of 2001. Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp., among Japan’s largest companies, have lost a fifth of their value since April 21.
