Nikkei marks highest year-end evel in 26 years

December 30, 2017

Tokyo- The benchmark Nikkei average marked the highest year-end level since 1991 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday, after a year of upsurge attributed chiefly to robust corporate earnings on the back of economic growth at home and abroad.

The 225-issue Nikkei average closed the year 2017 at 22,764.94, extending its rising streak to a sixth year, the longest bull run since the bursting of Japan's bubble economy in the early 1990s.

The total market capitalization of stocks listed on the TSE's first section expanded to a year-end record of 674 trillion yen, far outstripping the previous high of 591 trillion yen posted in 1989.

In 2017, the Nikkei soared 3,650.57 points, or 19.10 pct. The annual point gain was the largest since 2013, when the key indicator jumped 5,896 points, supported by expectations for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policy mix dubbed Abenomics, after his second administration was launched in December 2012. Jiji Press