Japan's Nikkei share average rose to a near eight-month high on Thursday morning as the weak yen lifted sentiment ahead of a meeting later in the day between the Central Bank Governor and Prime Minister fuelled expectations for additional easing.
The Nikkei climbed 0.6 percent to 15,889.98 in mid-morning trade after reaching up to 15,905.03, the highest since mid-January. The broader Topix hit a six-year high, rising 0.6 percent to 1,314.63. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet at noon 0300 GMT for a regular exchange of views on the economy, sources said.
The focus will be on whether Mr. Abe will urge the Bank of Japan to ease monetary policy further if the economic rebound from a deep second-quarter contraction proved to be much weaker than expected, analysts say. "Stock market investors are seeing if the yen weakens further while they expect Abe to pressure Kuroda," Daiwa Securities analyst Kenji Shiomura said.
In New York trade, the dollar hit a six-year high of 106.89 yen and remained a whisker away early in Asia. Exporters got a boost, with Toyota Motor Corp rising 0.9 percent, Sony Corp jumping 3.1 percent and Toshiba Corp soaring 2.1 percent. Dainippon Screen Mfg Co surged 2.9 percent after the Nikkei business daily reported that the company would likely reap profits from LCD panel-making equipment in fiscal 2014 for the first time in four years. The JPX-Nikkei Index 400 gained 0.3 percent to 11,895.57.
