Taipei  - Taiwan stocks opened the New Year on Monday by surging nearly 5 per cent, on the government's economics stimulus plan, improved Taiwan-China ties and US and European stocks' surge.

The TAIEX benchmark index rose 134.04 points, or 2.92 per cent when the stock market opened at 9 am after being closed for four trading days since Wednesday for the New Year holidays.

By 10 am, the TAIEX had climbed 157.99, or 3.44 per cent, to 4,749.21.

Tokyo - Tokyo's stock market started trading for the New Year in a positive mood on Monday.

The Nikkei Index of 225 leading stocks rose over 9,000 for the first time in nearly two months as the market opened. After Wall Street gained on Friday, the Nikkei rose
212.76 points, or 2.4 per cent, to 9,072.32.

The index lost a record 42 per cent last year as the financial crisis pummeled world markets.

Indian equities welcomed the new year (2009) on a bullish note. Midcap and Smallcaps showed upbeat reaction all through the week.

The 30 share index, Sensex gained 629.3 points to 9,958.22 during the week, which ended on January 02, 2009. In contrast, the broad based NSE Nifty made 189.5 points to 3,046.75 during the same period.

During the week, Mid-cap stocks recorded 284.5 points to 3,391.18, while Smallcap shares zoomed 321.91 points to 3,870.45.

Expectations of another stimulus package by the government, hopes of further rate cuts by RBI and buying activity by FIIs (foreign institutional investors), helped the stock market recover losses of the previous week.

Indian equities gained in four out of the five trading sessions of the week, which ended on January 2, 2009.

On Friday, the 30-share-index opened positively but slipped into the red after a while as some of the blue chip stocks faced stiff resistance at higher levels.

New York - US stocks reached a two-month high Friday, the first day of trading in 2009, buoyed by news that General Motors had received its first money lifeline from the US government.

With Wall Street's three major indices adding 2.94 to 3.5 per cent, the news took some of the sting out of the end-of-2008 headlines on Wednesday, which dismally blared the market's worst annual drop since the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average alone shed 34 per cent over the year.

GM, the largest US automaker, rallied 14 per cent Friday after the US government moved during the New Year's holiday to free up more money for auto loans and to start the emergency infusion of billions of dollars directly into the industry to keep it afloat.

Second Fiscal Stimulus package to help labour intensive sectors may be announced in the evening today. The package may help stock markets as it will address the concerns of various sectors and will boost the sentiment. Experts believe that the second package will offer major help to various labour intensive sectors. In addition, the government may announce some ammendments to earlier package announced last month.

CNBC-TV18 has confirmed the reports from PMO sources that a package may be announced after market hours, around 6 pm. Market experts believe that India will be able to maintain a GDP growth above 7%.