HONG KONG, March 9: Asian stocks closed mostly higher on Thursday with Tokyo grabbing the spotlight after The Bank of Japan (BOJ) marked an historic return to conventional monetary policy.
The BOJ made the much anticipated announcement with growth picking-up steam and allowing it to end five-years of flooding the economy with cash amid zero interest rates to combat the debilitating impact of deflation.
However, most gains were limited by persistent fears of a further increase to interest rates, following a rout on the US bond market earlier this week, and Seoul rose 0.22 per cent, Taipei 0.42 per cent and Kuala Lumpur 0.81 per cent.
Gains in Wellington, Hong Kong and Manila were of a similar order while Sydney defied an overnight slump in commodity prices to rise 0.44 per cent.
TOKYO: Share prices ended sharply higher as investors welcomed the central bank’s pledge to keep interest rates low for some time while scrapping its current super loose monetary policy, as expected.
The Nikkei-225 index jumped 409.42 points or 2.62 per cent to 16,036.91. Volume rose to 1.82 billion shares from 1.73 billion Wednesday.
The stock market welcomed the end of uncertainty over monetary policy and the central bank’s decision to give clear guidance on its future intentions.
HONG KONG: Share prices closed flat in rangebound trade due to prevailing uncertainties over interest rate movements and a decline in Chinese oil and commodity stocks.
Turnover was 27.94 billion Hong Kong dollars (3.58 billion Us dollars).
SYDNEY: Share prices staged a late rally to close 0.44 per cent higher as strength in the banking sector and strong jobs figures boosted the market.
The SP/ASX 200 rose 21.4 points to 4,894.4. A total of 1.16 billion shares worth 3.92 billion dollars (2.9 billion US) changed hands.
SINGAPORE: Share prices closed flat in a market that lacked fresh leads. The
Straits Times Index was up 1.65 points at 2,504.25 on volume of 884 million shares at 914.8 million Singapore dollars (561 million US).
“Volume today is low, generally due to lack of fresh leads,” a local brokerage dealer said.
KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 0.81 per cent higher, led by gains in construction stocks on hopes the sector will benefit from a forthcoming government development plan.
The composite index added 7.38 points at 920.91. Volume was 659.87 million shares worth 993.54 million ringgit (267 million dollars).
JAKARTA: Share prices closed 0.48 per cent higher on a technical rebound led by index heavyweight Astra International and selected banking stocks.
The composite index closed up 5.981 points at 1,239.577 on volume of 1.77 billion shares worth 1.36 trillion rupiah (146.55 million dollars).
WELLINGTON: Share prices closed 0.38 per cent higher in heavy trade after the central bank indicated interest rates would not go any higher.
The NZSX-50 gross index rose 13.20 points to 3,462.67 on turnover worth 220.8 million New Zealand dollars (143.5 million US).—AFP