Japan: Best and Worst Performing ADRs Last Week and YTD

Many Japanese ADRs trading on the NYSE/NASDAQ failed to extend gains into a third week. The Nikkei was mostly flat despite revisiting 18,000, and went on to sell-off Friday.

Although the Nikkei fell 1.5% on Friday, a rally in the U.S. helped pull up the weekly returns of most ADRs.

Yen weakness persists as it trades between 121 and 122 against the US dollar. The Bank of Japan meets later this week, but it is highly unlikely they will vote to hike ahead of the election next month.

Note Q1 (ended March 31) GDP was upward revised to 3.3% (annualized), from 2.4%.

Bank stocks, especially Mizuho Financial Group (MFG) and insurers, including Millea Holdings (MLEA), have been hot of late in rising anticipation of a rate hike and as bond yields climb -- not to mention increased analyst backing, including Goldman Sachs.

On average, the 27 Japanese ADRs lost a combined 0.5% last week. They are up a combined average 1.6% for the year.

Average weekly Japanese ADR returns over the past two months:

05/25 - 06/01: +2.6%
05/18 - 05/25: +1.1%
05/11 - 05/18: -2.6%
05/04 - 05/11: +0.4%
04/27 - 05/04: +0.6%
04/20 - 04/27: -1.8%
04/13 - 04/20: +1.5%
04/05 - 04/13: -2.1%

The five best performing ADRs last week:

1. Millea Hldgs (MLEA) 10.3%
2. TDK (TDK) 6.0%
3. Mizuho FG (MFG) 4.6%
4. Kyocera (KYO) 3.1%
5. FUJIFILM (FUJI) 2.4%

The five worst performing ADRs:

1. NTT DoCoMo (DCM) -5.2%
2. NIS Group(NIS) -4.6%
3. Sony (SNE) -4.2%
4. Internet Initiative Japan (IIJI) -4.1%
5. NTT (NTT) -3.5%

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

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

Click to enlarge chart