TOKYO–(Business Wire)–
Nikko Asset Management Co., Ltd. (Nikko AM) has announced the winners of the
Spring Competition in Country Pick, Nikko AM’s online investment simulation
game. The Spring Competition, finishing in June, was the second three-month
competition held by Nikko AM. In contrast to the Winter Competition,
participants in the Spring Competition faced serious difficulties due to
turbulent stock markets worldwide.
Participants in Country Pick use a virtual investment fund to build a portfolio
by choosing from the equity markets of 31 countries and regions. They then
compete in terms of investment performance. A total of 5,470 participants from
Japan, China and the U.S. competed in the Spring Competition.
As the stock markets worldwide fell significantly during the competition due to,
among other things, financial problems in Europe, participants suffered large
negative returns. As the data on returns by country and region show , even Peru,
the best performer, only recorded a -0.2% return for the period, while Spain,
the worst performer, had a return of -26.2%.
The participant rankings also changed dramatically, as the top performers in the
Winter Competition were completely replaced by new faces during the spring . It
seems that many participants improved their ranking by incorporating into their
portfolios countries from South America and Asia, regions that were less
affected by the European financial problems. On the other hand, participants who
mainly incorporated eurozone stocks into their portfolios saw their rankings
fall significantly. While all of the top performers in the Winter Competition
were from Japan, participants from China ranked highly in the Spring
Competition, with a Chinese resident finishing in fourth place. We may yet see a
Chinese champion in the upcoming Summer competition!
None of the participants finished the Spring Competition with positive returns.
The average return was -13.0%, which demonstrates the difficult markets that
confronted participants. Participants cumulatively lost more than 700 billion
yen from their initial virtual funds, which totaled 5.6 trillion yen, within a
period of only three months.
The all-new Country Pick Student Competition, in which top performers may be
considered as candidates for a Nikko AM internship, started in July
simultaneously with the three-month Summer competition. And Country Pick will
continue even after these competitions finish. The registration deadline for the
Fall competition, which starts in October, and for the Student competition is
2:00 a.m., EDT, on Wednesday, September 29, 2010. In order to compete in either
of these competitions, you will need to register and construct your portfolio by
that time. With 31 countries and regions to choose from, there’s no limit to
what participants can do. Why not try out your ideas in Country Pick?
Country Pick website (Japanese version, U.S. version and Chinese version)
http://sekaino.toshinou.jp/
*The Japanese, U.S. and Chinese versions are, respectively, for those living in
Japan, those living in the United States and those living in Mainland China.
Participants in the U.S. version are requested to register for entry in English
and participants in the Chinese version in Chinese.
Nikko Asset Management Co., Ltd.
Naho Yohda/ Akiko Tsuboi / Shingo Murooka, +81-3-6447-6426
Corporate Communications Department
corpcom@nikkoam.com
FAX: +81-3-6447-6813
Copyright Business Wire 2010