The Nikkei posted slight gains after a mostly lackadaisical session, though the Hang Seng is up 1.6% and the Shanghai Composite is up by 1.1% on the day.

The rally in Wall Street met a bit of a pause yesterday but risk sentiment remains somewhat buoyed with S&P 500 futures keeping ~0.4% higher so far today.

As things stand, the Nikkei looks set to eventually breach 30,000 and that argument is bolstered by the continued ETF purchases by the BOJ – despite policymakers coming out to defend that they have “nothing” to do with the jump in stock prices.