TOKYO, July 29 Tokyo stocks rose in volatile trade on Friday as banks and insurers gained, offsetting disappointment the Bank of Japan’s policy easing fell short of investors’ high expectations.
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“With so many cross currents at play over the short term, we would rather watch the action in gold from the sidelines for the time being, at least until Friday’s news from both the USA and Japan is out of the way”, INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said in a note ahead of the BoJ statement.
The dollar last traded at 103.28 yen, down 1.8 per cent.
It surged by nearly 3 percent, peak-to-trough in the 30 seconds following the Bank of Japan decision and as Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s news conference continued early in the European day, it was up nearly 2 percent against both the euro and dollar.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS hit the highest level since August 11 before pulling back to trade down 0.2 percent.
Japan’s 10-year bond yield soared 10 basis points to -0.17 percent JP10YT=RR , on course for its biggest one-day rise since April 2008. “Increasing ETF purchases makes no contribution to achieving 2pc inflation”.
According to people familiar with the matter, the Bank of Japan is timing its action with the big fiscal spending package of the government and will aim at maximizing the increase of its measures on Japan’s economy that’s been struggling to push inflation for decades without much success. The Topix Banks Index surged 6.2 percent, the best performer among the 33 industry groups on the Topix, which rose 0.5 percent.
The dollar index .DXY slipped 0.3 percent to 96.452, putting it on track for a slide of 0.5 percent for the week, but a gain of 0.3 percent for the month.
Wall Street shares remained near all-time highs, with tech heavyweights Alphabet (Xetra: ABEA.DE – news) and Amazon rising after the bell as their earnings beat expectations.
Singapore tumbled 1.2 percent but Sydney was up 0.1 percent.
Platinum rose 1.2% at $1,140.50/oz and was on track for its best month since January 2012, with a more than 11% growth in July.
European shares .FTEU3 fell on Thursday, however, as markets awaited the release of the stress test results on European banks on Friday night. US futures augured a lower opening on Wall Street, with the Dow futures down 0.2 percent and S&P futures also 0.2 percent lower.
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OIL: In the energy market, benchmark US crude fell 42 to $40.72 on the New York Mercantile Exchange while Brent crude, used to price global oils, fell 75 cents to $42.95 in London. Brent crude, used to price worldwide oils, fell 56 cents to $42.68 in London.
