Nikkei plunges 5.96% as Tokyo loses 10.74% in a week while India's Nifty gains 9%

Asia's two largest equity stories of the week could hardly have looked more different. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 plunged 5.96% on Friday to 57,434.70, completing a 10.74% weekly loss. Mumbai's Nifty 50, meanwhile, climbed 2.01% to 25,030.35 and finished the week 9.00% higher.

For investors who spent most of the year watching Japan outperform, the reversal is striking. Even after this week's slide, the Nikkei is still up 12.59% year to date. The Nifty, despite its rally, remains 4.37% lower than where it started the year.

A sell-off with almost no exceptions

Friday's decline in Tokyo was about as broad as a market move gets. Of 600 large-cap Japanese stocks we track, 583 closed lower and only 14 rose. Not a single sector finished in positive territory. The most resilient groups were process industries (−4.19%), retail trade (−4.24%) and health services (−4.30%). The heaviest losses came in distribution services (−6.77%), commercial services (−6.52%) and finance (−6.50%).

Individual names fell hard. E-Guardian dropped 25.54%, Japan Tobacco lost 19.31%, Japan Medical Dynamic Marketing 17.70% and chipmaker ROHM 15.00%. A handful of stocks swam against the tide: Hennge jumped 22.09%, Tokyo Printing Ink Manufacturing added 8.18%, Jinushi rose 7.34% and Datasection gained 6.82%.

The yen did not offer much comfort either. The dollar rose 0.55% against the Japanese currency on Friday to 158.53 yen. On the policy front, Investing.com reported that BOJ chief Ueda sees "some upside risks" to inflation.

Greater China: a down day, an up week

Hong Kong and mainland China were softer on Friday but held on to weekly gains. The Hang Seng fell 1.27% to 24,481.87, yet still ended the week 6.39% higher. The Shanghai Composite slipped 1.10% to 3,649.18 and finished the week up 1.21%.

Both markets remain in the red for the year: the Hang Seng is down 4.80% year to date and the Shanghai Composite 8.47%.

India's momentum

The Nifty 50's 9.00% weekly gain makes it the strongest performer among the major Asian benchmarks we follow. It is a sharp contrast with the global mood: in the United States, the BBC examined why the US midterms sparked an AI stock selloff, and the Nasdaq 100 lost 5.65% over the same five days.

The gap between India and Japan this week — roughly 20 percentage points between the Nifty's +9.00% and the Nikkei's −10.74% — shows how differently investors are treating the region's markets right now.

What to watch

• Monday, 01:30 UTC: China's October inflation rate, forecast at 0.8% year on year after 0.9% previously.
• Tuesday, 03:00 UTC: China's October trade data, with exports forecast to grow 33% year on year after 36.3% the month before.
• Tuesday, 13:30 UTC: US October inflation, forecast at 3.9% year on year after 3.7% — a release that tends to set the tone for global markets.

Analysis by Amara Okafor, written with AI assistance from live market data (source: TradingView) and attributed third-party headlines. For information only — not investment advice.