Barely weeks after Japanese stocks broke three-decade highs, the country’s financial markets are hurtling toward another phenomenon not seen for the best part of a generation: rising interest rates.
Bankers are attending remedial classes on what to do when rates move and trading rooms are setting up for moribund derivative markets to spring to life — as they have begun to do.
Their pricing implies a matter of months at the most before the last bastion of a decades-long monetary policy experiment with negative short-term rates falls. An exit by the Bank of Japan is expected by June, with an even chance that rates will rise to zero next week.
Fidelity Japan Trust PLC (LON:FJV) aims to be the key investment of choice for those seeking Japanese companies exposure. The Trust has a ‘growth at reasonable price’ (GARP) investment style and approach – which involves identifying companies whose growth prospects are being under-appreciated or are not fully recognised by other investors.