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March 11, 2011 at 09:23 AM
In the wake of a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake, the largest felt by Japan since recordkeeping began some 140 years ago, impact on the market is expected to be limited, according to a Japanese market strategist.
Soichiro Monji, chief market strategist for Daiwa SBI, which manages the Japan Equity Fund, said in a statement that while the earthquake hit "a broad area of the eastern part of Japan," its impact on the Japanese economy was not considered "to be too serious because the damage is concentrated in the northeastern part of the country in the Tohoku prefecture and Tohoku's economy only accounts for around 6% of nominal GDP for all of Japan."
(For more on the earthquake, please see our sister site, propertycasualty360.com.)
The quake, which struck near the end of the trading day, kept fund managers in their offices as it shut down the entire subway system. However, according to Monji, Tokyo itself was spared the worst: "[T]he damage seems to be minimal. Although the ground shocks were bigger than any that I have experienced before, we have fortunately not seen any collapse of buildings, roads or bridges."
