So the yen is falling and Japanese equities are off to the races thanks to the Bank of Japan’s stunning policy about-turn. What do you buy?
There are the momentum trades straight from any quantitative easing playbook. But these have run already. Four property developers were among the Nikkei’s top 10 gainers on Friday with none rising less than 10 per cent. All have now managed at least a 100 per cent gain since mid-November. Banks and companies with property holdings are other popular plays. And foreign government bonds have gained, since banks can now sell their expensive long-dated JGBs to the BoJ and invest elsewhere.
But such momentum trades involve timing an exit before the easy money bubble pops. Investors, like drivers asked about their ability to avoid accidents, have a tendency to think they are more skilled than they are. Far better to look for sustainable returns, assuming Haruhiko Kuroda and Shinzo Abe succeed in reflating the economy. Macro trends are hard to predict but looking for those companies that have steadily raised dividends – with all that implies for earnings growth – is less so. The group of stocks this brings up is not large, but it could grow. Dividends are common – nearly all large companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange have a payout, but only 21 companies, or 0.01 per cent, have consistently raised dividends for the past decade, according to Nomura, compared with a 10th of the S&P 500 having done so for 25 years.