Japan’s 5 leading online brokerages have told the FT that, between them, they clocked well over half a million new account openings in the months of March and April. That is roughly twice the average pace for this time of year, and critically, these new converts to investment have not been idle.
The effect of this mass arrival has been spectacular. Since its panic-induced low on March 19, the index that tracks the Mothers market has risen more than 72 per cent, and so far this year has outperformed Japan’s Nikkei 225, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq. The traded volumes, in May, hit all-time records and the total market capitalisation of the Mothers market hit ¥6.5tn ($60bn), outshining the supposedly more prestigious TSE Second Section.
https://www.ft.com/content/0970be92-8064-434d-9849-4e727bf9445e