Asian shares mostly higher led by Nikkei after BoJ stands pat

Investing.com - Share in Asia mostly gained on Friday supported by monetary policy remained, led by Tokyo as the central bank stood pat on its current easy stance, though Greece also weighed.

The Nikkei 225 rose 0.92%, whilethe S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.29%. The Shanghai Composite however fell 2.36% on profit taking.


The Bank of Japan held policy steady as expected on Friday in an 8 to 1 vote that saw Takahide Kiuchi again propose cutting the pace of government bond buying by nearly half.

The BoJ is now buying government bonds at a pace of ¥80 trillion, with Kiuchi suggesting that be dropped to ¥45 trillion.

The board did conclude that the economy continues to recover moderately and that private consumption has been resilient, while exports have improved.

At the same time, the BoJ said it would revise its communication efforts by releasing forecasts and risk views from each member and an opinion summary within one week of the meeting.

BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda holds a news conference at 1530 (0630 GMT) to discuss the board's decision.

Greece's finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said Thursday that the standoff between Athens and its creditors was "dangerously close" to an accident and that he had made a new proposal of a "deficit brake" to help reach an agreement with creditors.

"We are dangerously close to a state of mind that accepts an accident, and I urged my colleagues not to fall prey to this state of mind," he said. "We can forge an agreement. Our government is standing by with ideas."

Varoufakis made the comments after a meeting of the Eurogroup in Luxembourg, which ended without an agreement on financing for Greece, meaning there are now only days remaining before the expiration of the country's second bailout and the deadline for repaying the International Monetary Fund €1.5 billion.

He said that he had made an "innovative" proposal at the meeting here to introduce an independent fiscal council to monitor the budget that would be empowered with a "hard deficit brake" to automatically implement fiscal controls in Greece if projections show a high probability of the budget going into primary deficit.

International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde warned that Greece will not be given a grace period if it fails to make a loan repayment of €1.5 billion on June 30.

Overnight, U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Utilities and Consumer Services sectors led shares higher.

At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.00%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.99%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 1.34%.