Tokyo Stocks Post 5th Straight Gain, Record ’90 Volume

Japanese stocks climbed to their fifth straight gain in record 1990 volume today as investors ignored the third anniversary of the Black Monday crash to return to the market in droves.

“Nobody wanted to be left out today,” one broker said. “Japanese investors who normally buy in lots of 30,000 or 50,000 were buying in lots of 100,000.”

The yen’s new-found strength and firmer bond prices lured investors from Japan and abroad back.

In hectic trading, 1.1 billion shares changed hands on the anniversary of the October, 1987, stock market crash. The previous 1990 record of 1 billion shares was hit in early March.

The key 225-share Nikkei index gained 114.41 points, or 0.47%, to 24,481.49.