Nikkei starts new week flat

The Nikkei ended the first day of the new week slightly down after a choppy session.

At the end of trading today (December 2nd), the index had slipped just 0.04 per cent following on from last week's strong performance.

The gain of 9.3 per cent that the Nikkei recorded last month helped the index to its best November result in eight years.

According to a report by Reuters, the Nikkei was choppy today due to increased caution from investors over incoming major economic data from the US.

Following the recent gains from the index, profit-taking has also been rife on the index, although it is still close to the five-and-a-half year peak it reached in May.

Payrolls data from the US is due to be released on Friday and anticipation over these figures is likely to have an impact on global markets in the coming days.

The Nikkei's performance for the year as a whole is still strong, with the index up around 50 per cent on the start of 2013.

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