For the Australian stockmarket, what a month February was and what a start to 2015.
And March will probably see a better start today than the 10 points or so on the share index trading at the weekend after the surprise cut in official Chinese interest rates on Saturday night.
That cut, the second since November, was unforeseen and while it underlines the growing fears of a slowdown in China, for local investors it will be a bullish move initially.
It will certainly be seen in the same light as the local rate cut last month here and the easing of monetary policy in Europe and Japan which helped boost sharemarket levels there last month.
Thanks to a combination of the Reserve Bank rate cut and the flood of dividend hikes and occasional buybacks, the Australian market jumped more than 6% last month for one of its biggest gains for years.
Seeing the local market was up 3.3% in January, our market had started 2015 with 9.4% plus gain on the board by the close on Friday.
In fact it has comprehensively outperformed all of 2014 and its tiny 1% rise in the ASX 200.
On Friday, the ASX 200 index closed up 0.8% for the week at 5928.8, while the All Ordinaries rose 0.9% to 5898.5.
The ASX200 has now risen six weeks in a row, which drove the stunning 6.1% surge last month, turning the local market into one of the best global performers for the month.
In fact February proved a month of record breaking in global equities. The MSCI All-Country World Index added a very solid 5.4% last month.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index jumped 6.9% last month, pushing gains in 2015 to 14.7%, despite the fears about Greece and deflation in the eurozone.
In contrast, the US markets are only up 2.2% so far in 2015.
The European Central Bank’s decision to expand its spending by buying bonds has driven the boom in share prices as bond yields across the eurozone and Europe have dipped into negative territory, led by Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, The Netherlands, Austria and France.
The New Zealand stock exchange closed at a record high of 5878.4 on Friday, up 2.3% for the month, while London’s FTSE 100 hit a new closing record on Thursday and also rose 0.5% for the week and added 2% for the month.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones also set a series of new closing record highs, adding 5.5% and 5.7% respectively for the month. But the Nasdaq starred with a rise of 7.1% for the month.
That came after a poor January with the S&P 500 down 3.1%.
The S&P 500 ended 6.25 points, or 0.3%, lower at 2,104.73 on Friday and down 0.3% for the week. February’s gain of 5.5% was the best since October 2011.
The Dow dropped 82.04 points, or 0.5%, to 18,132.38 and was steady over the week.
The Nasdaq Composite lost 24.36 points, or 0.5%, to 4,963.53 and was slightly higher over the week.
The monthly gain of 7.1% was the best since January 2012,
Elsewhere last week, eurozone shares rose 2.7%, Japanese shares rose 2.5% and the Chinese share market added 2% as trading resumed after the Lunar New Year break.
It should get a good bounce today from the rate cut at the weekend.
The US dollar was up 0.8% over the month and the Aussie dollar ended at $78.08 USc, up around a third of a cent from the end of January, and higher than when the Reserve Bank cut rates a month ago.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 ended the week at a 15-year high after inching up 0.1%, giving it a weekly gain of 2.5%.
The Nikkei rose 6.4% in February, the best month since November.
