TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei stock average extended its advance and government bond futures turned lower on Friday after the Bank of Japan left interest rates unchanged, as had been widely expected.
The yen remained weaker against the US dollar, even as the central bank raised its economic and inflation forecasts, and reiterated a pledge to continue tightening policy.
“The central bank doesn’t seem that much more hawkish despite the upward revisions to growth and inflation,” said Kyle Rodda, an analyst at Capital.com.
“It means policy could be loose for a while,” he said. “That’s good for the Nikkei, negative for the yen.” The Nikkei was 0.4percent higher at 53,903.46, as of 0340 GMT, 10 minutes into the afternoon session. It had ended morning trading up 0.3percent. The BOJ decision came during the lunch break.
However, the broader Topix index pared its earlier advance to trade 0.5 percent up at 3,634.81. Trading was choppy in the yen immediately after the central bank’s announcement, but it was last down 0.1 percent at 158.555 per US dollar, continuing its gentle drift lower seen over the past four sessions.
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