Japan: Best and Worst Performing ADRs Last Week and YTD

Sony was hot last week and has been very strong year-to-date, leading all Japanese ADRs and in fact, is trading at a 5-year high. There's not much else positive to talk about on a weekly basis, but there are some ytd standouts.

On average, the 28 Japanese ADRs listed on the NYSE or trading on the Nasdaq lost a combined 2.1% last week. For the year, they are up a combined average 0.7%.

Over 80% of the 28 ADRs posted a negative return for the week.

Average weekly returns over the past several weeks:

03/30 - 04/05: +1.3%
03/23 - 03/30: -1.6%
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 thumbnail chart image to the right for Japanese ADR performance two weeks ago.

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

The five best performing ADRs last week:

1. Sony (SNE) 5.4%
2. Millea Hldgs (MLEA) 2.6%
3. Canon (CAJ) 0.7%
    Kyocera (KYO) 0.7%
4. ORIX (IX) 0.2%
5. TDK (TDK) -0.4%

The five worst performing ADRs:

1. Internet Initiative Japan (IIJI) - 7.2%
2. NTT DoCoMo (DCM) -6.8%
3. Mitsui & Co (MITSY) -4.7%
4. Honda (HMC) -4.5%
    Nomura (NMR) -4.5%
5. Nissan (NSANY) -4.3%
    NIS Group (NIS) -4.3%

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