The Nikkei 225 shook off a weak open to close up 0.62% at 66,262.16, rallying more than 800 points off the morning low. Banks and pharma led, shippers lagged, and the TSE short-selling ratio held at a defensive 42.7% ahead of Nvidia earnings.
The Nikkei 225 eased 0.30% to 66,016.36 Friday to cap its worst week in over a month, even as TOPIX edged higher. Shipping stocks soared on Hormuz freight-rate expectations, July CPI kept a September BOJ hike in play, and the TSE short-selling ratio climbed to 42.7% — the top of its recent range.
The Nikkei 225 closed Friday at 68,713.80 (+0.59%) on options SQ day, led by Sony, Nintendo and SoftBank Group, while short-term JGB yields climbed on growing speculation of a BOJ move as early as September. The TSE short-selling ratio came in at 40.9% — mid-range, but still defensive.
The Nikkei 225 tells you what Japan’s most expensive stocks did; TOPIX tells you what the market did. A practical guide to price weighting, the NT ratio, and reading divergences between Japan’s two benchmark indices.
The Nikkei 225 is a price-weighted average, so a handful of high-priced chip names can move the whole index far more than their economic size suggests. This guide explains the mechanics, contrasts the Nikkei with TOPIX, walks through a real worked example, and shows how Japan’s semiconductor policy reinforces the sector’s outsized market role.