Nikkei 225 Rises 0.8%, Topix Falls 0.4% at Tokyo Morning Close

A split between the Nikkei 225 and Topix is a composition signal, not just a sentiment one: the Nikkei's price-weighted, export-heavy makeup can diverge from the broader, market-cap-weighted Topix when large-cap names and the wider market part ways. For anyone reading Tokyo as a proxy for risk appetite, the divergence itself is the story. Whether the two benchmarks continue to decouple is the open question.