Japan: Best and Worst Performing ADRs Last Week

There's nothing to complain about last week's returns among Japanese ADRs. It was a nice showing after the poor performance two weeks ago. The Nikkei 225 has traded higher four straight days and could make it a fifth today.

The 28 Japanese ADRs that are listed on the NYSE or traded on the Nasdaq posted a combined 3.5% return last week, and are up again as a group by 3.2% for the year.

All 28 ADRs recorded a weekly gain, compared to two weeks ago, when 80% of them posted a weekly loss.

Here's their combined average return over the past several weeks:

03/09 - 03/16: -1.9%
03/02 - 03/09: +0.6%
02/23 - 03/02: -3.8%
02/16 - 02/23: +0.5%
02/09 - 02/16: +4.2%

See the chart near the bottom for weekly and year-to-date returns.

The five best performing ADRs last week:

1. Kyocera (KYO) 6.1%
2. Makita (MKTAY) 6.0%
3. Internet Initiative Japan (IIJI) 5.9%
4. Matsushita Elec. Ind. (MC) 5.8%
5. Advantest (ATE) 5.5%

The five worst performing ADRs:

1. NIS Grp. (NIS) 0.3%
2. ORIX (IX) 1.0%
3. Mizuho FG (MFG) 1.2%
4. NTT (NTT) 1.7%
5. Nomura (NMR) 2.1%

Disclosure: The author owns shares of NIS Group and IIJ and also owns IIJ call options.