19th December 2011
The Japanese Nikkei has fallen by 1.26 per cent in trading today (December 16th) following the news of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
As a result, the market moved to a three-week closing low of 8,272. The news of Jong-il's death has sparked concerns that political instability could now become an overriding concern in the state and this is destabilising foreign indices, especially those on the Asian continent.
"Investors are taking a wait-and-see approach to see if the situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will take a turn for the worse," commented Masayuki Otani, chief market analyst at Securities Japan.
Last week, strong employment data coming out of the US also resulted in an upturn for the Japanese index, with a 0.3 per cent rise witnessed on Friday.
Reuters revealed US jobs data proved stronger than expected and this resulted in growing confidence among investors, although that now appears to have been short-lived.
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