Japan’s Blue Chip Nikkei 225 ended the year 16% higher at 27444.17 near 30 year highs. Japanese stocks were boosted by safe haven yen buying and massive BoJ ETF purchases and monetary policy fed optimism surrounding COVID-19 vaccines and unprecedented stimulus measures from global central banks boosting risk sentiment.
Japan’s Blue Chip Nikkei 225 ended the year 16% higher at 27444.17 near 30 year highs. Japanese stocks were boosted by safe haven yen buying and massive BoJ ETF purchases and monetary policy fed optimism surrounding COVID-19 vaccines and unprecedented stimulus measures from global central banks boosting risk sentiment.

Japanese stocks recovered to near 30 year highs after the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and China trade uncertainty.
The Nikkei 225 ended the last day of the year down 123.98 points or 0.45% to 27444.17 with the continued surge in coronavirus cases with the Japanese government decided to suspend special entry conditions for athletes and team staff from countries and regions where new virus strains have been found.
How Global Indices fared in 2020
- In the U.S. the S&P 500 and Dow closed at record levels at the year end.
- The tech heavy Nasdaq led the charge in 2020 up 43.64%, the largest gain since 2009
- S&P was up 16.26%. Since 2010 the S&P is up 240%, though 57% of the gain in the S&P was from just three stocks Microsoft, Amazon and Apple
- The Dow is closed up 7.25% after being down most tof the year, the DJIA was down over -36% at the March low
- In Europe the best performer was the German DAX which rose +3.6% for the year.
- Spain’s IBEX 30 was an even worse performer than the FTSE 100 down -15.5%.
- Italy’s MIB fell -5.4%,
- The French CAC 40 fell -7.1%
- The British FTSE 100 dumped. -14.3%
- The Australian ASX 200 Stock Market Closed Down 1.5% in 2020
- Japan’s Nikkei gained 16%,
- China’s Shanghai composite rose ripped 14% during 2020.
The yen rallied in line with stocks after an iniital fall from March panic buying highs to close the year having rallied against the US dollar as massive US QE weakened the dollar. The stronger yen added to gains for overseas investors in the japanese stock market.

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