Sydney, Tokyo shares gain on jobs in Australia and weaker yen in Japan

Investing.com - Shares in Sydney and Tokyo jumped on Thursday with Australia buoyed by solid jobs growth and a weaker yen helping Japanese export-focused firms.

The S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.30% in the afternoon, while the Nikkei 225 gained 1.36%. Markets generally shrugged off continued woes for Greece as it seeks to re-negotiate the terms of its debt obligations.

Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras ended talks with key European leaders in Brussels Wednesday without solid progress towards reaching an agreement with international creditors.

The meeting included Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's President Francois Hollande in an effort to broker a political solution to present to the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.

"We agreed to intensify the efforts in order to bridge the gaps and proceed to a solution," Tsipras told journalists as he left the Summit. "I think the EU leadership realises that they must agree to a viable solution, and the possibility for Greece to return to social cohesion with security and growth but also with a sustainable debt."

Earlier on Wednesday, S&P unexpectedly downgraded Greece's debt rating to CCC from CCC+ and warned that, absent a deal with its creditors, Greece could default on its commercial debt within the next 12 months.

Tsipras is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels Thursday.

Australia added 42,000 jobs in May, compared to 11,000 jobs seen, taking the unemployment rate to 6.0%, the lowest in a year and well below the 6.2% expected though the participation rate fell slightly to 64.7% from 64.8%.

Earlier, the Melbourne Institute annual inflation expectations showed June at 3.0% compared to 3.6% in May.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand on Thursday cut its Official Cash Rate by 25 basis points to 3.25%, the latest central bank in Asia to ease monetary policy.

The decision came as a surprise to majority of economists who expected governor Graeme Wheeler to hold the OCR at this quarterly meeting, but to signal rate cuts late in the year. Market was pricing around 60% chance of a 25 basis points cut.

Elsewhere, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.19% and the Hang Seng index up 0.89%.

Overnight, U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Technology, Financials and Oil & Gas sectors led shares higher.

At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.33%, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.20%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.25%.