Asian markets: the Nikkei in context

Once when Japan sneezed the rest of Asia caught pneumonia. But with the rise of China and the rest, Japan no longer looms so large in the economies of other Asian countries.

The recent gyrations of the Japanese stock market seem to prove the point. The surge in the Nikkei since last autumn and its recent fall have had limited impact on other stock exchanges in the region. On Thursday, with the Nikkei down 5.1 per cent, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index slipped only 0.5 per cent.