ROME: Asian stocks were mostly higher Wednesday after Japan’s central bank maintained its expansively easy monetary policy.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.8 percent to 19,810.38 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.3 percent at 5,944.60. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 2.4 percent to 25,877.70 after a five-day long weekend. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.5 percent to 2,057.70. Markets in Southeast Asia were mixed while benchmarks in Shanghai and India rose.
The Bank of Japan maintained its policy of super-easy lending, which had been expected. Japan is trying to escape two decades of economic stagnation and deflation by massively expanding the supply of money in the world’s No. 3 economy. Japan’s main index had risen in anticipation that accommodative monetary policy would be maintained and held its gains after the decision was announced.
The aggressive monetary stimulus program in Japan has “provided a compelling backdrop for strong Japanese stock performance,” said analyst Nicholas Teo at CMC Markets
in Singapore. “Japanese equities have had a tough twenty years mostly languishing in the backseat,” he said. “The Nikkei at around the 20,000 level now, is barely half of where it was in the early 1990s.”
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 5.43 points, or 0.03 percent, to 17,875.42 on Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 4.29 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,076.33. The Nasdaq composite lost 7.08 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,910.23.
Benchmark U.S. crude was down $1.06 at $52.92 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract jumped $1.84, or 3.5 percent, to close at $53.98 a barrel in New York on Tuesday. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, was down 83 cents at $58.27 a barrel in London.
The dollar fell to 120.10 yen from 120.30 yen Tuesday. The euro rose to $1.0839 from $1.0823.
