Tokyo dealing floors today opened the first trading session of the Chinese year of the Ox in bullish mode, with the Nikkei closing above the 9,000-point mark for the first time in almost two months.

The Japanese trading year began with its traditional half-day session: during a frenetic two hours of trading, the Nikkei 225 stock index soared just over 2 per cent higher at 9,043.12.

Counting from Boxing Day, the morning rally marked the fifth straight session of gains in Tokyo – the longest winning streak since April 2008.

Other Asian markets also performed strongly. The constant flow of poor economic data suggests that a recovery may be some time off, but traders in Hong Kong, where the main Hang Seng index climbed about 2 per cent higher, said that the markets are now putting a little more faith in the giant stimulus packages announced by governments in the US, Europe and across the Asian region.

The yen, whose extended run of strength has battered much of corporate Japan, hovered around the Y92 level against the dollar – hints over the weekend that the Japanese authorities might be preparing for a bout of yen-weakening intervention were broadly ignored, although stock trading saw solid gains for the country’s biggest exporters.

Brokers at Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ described an unexpected “re-ignition of risk appetite” among investors in Japanese shares but warned that coming weeks may see a series of so-called suckers’ rallies.

The recent run-up on Wall Street – driven in large part by high hopes for the administration of Barack Obama – is not expected to last.

Brokers at Nomura said that recent reports on industrial output, manufacturing confidence and consumer spending are too bleak to be ignored by markets for much longer, even if the Obama rally continues until inauguration day.

A few brokers pointed out that the strong performance of the Nikkei during the short morning session in Tokyo is statistically well-omened: in five of the last seven years, the trend of the New Year half day session has precisely determined the direction for the full year’s trading.

Japanese trading was also coloured by a widespread sense of relief: today was the first session following a long-anticipated switch from trading in paper stock certificates to an all-electronic data system. The switch appeared to have passed without incidents or glitches, defying the doomsayers who had predicted a degree of mayhem.

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