Sawt Falasteen - Asia stocks up as 'Santa Rally' persists

Japan's Nikkei index was up 0.5 percent at the break, boosted by a Christmas Eve tech rally on Wall Street and gains for top-selling automaker Toyota.

China's plans for a massive bond issuances in 2025 also bolstered investor sentiment.

"Even though many in the region are still shaking off a bit of a holiday hangover, with several markets closed for Boxing Day, Asian stocks opened higher, riding a favourable wave from China's financial bond juggernaut," said Stephen Innes from SPI Asset Management.

London Stockton, an analyst at Ned Davis Research, noted that the "Santa Claus rally could still be alive, with strong seasonality into the end of the year".

Stock markets have traditionally fared well in the last five trading days of the year and the first two in the new year, a trend known as the "Santa Claus rally".

Among a number of possible reasons advanced by experts include the festive holiday mood and purchasing ahead of the end of the tax year.

Innes said remarks from Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda in which he refrained from signalling a potential interest rate hike next month also "influenced bullish regional sentiments".

Japanese market heavyweight Toyota gained more than five percent after reports in the Nikkei business daily said it aimed to double its return on equity -- a key measure of a company's financial performance.

In thin corporate news on Thursday, Japan Airlines reported a cyberattack that led to delays of at least nine domestic flights and halted ticket sales for passenger flights.

However it said that it had isolated the cause of the failure.

Markets had been closed across Europe and North America for Christmas. Dow Jones closed up 0.9 percent on the eve, while the tech-heavy S&P 500 rallied 1.1 percent.

Key figures around 0230 GMT -

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.53 percent at 39,336.39 points (break)

Hang Seng: UP 1.1 percent at 20,098.29 points (Tuesday close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.19 percent at 3386.77 points

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0398 from $1.0389 on Wednesday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2543 from $1.2531

Dollar/yen: UP at 157.46 yen from 157.31 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 82.91 pence from 82.89 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.20 percent at $70.24 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.16 percent at $73.70 per barrel

New York - Dow: UP 0.9 percent at 43,297.03 (Tuesday close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 8.136.99 (Tuesday close)

D.Khalil--SF-PST