Japan led Asian stock markets higher Wednesday, climbing 2.34% after the Japanese government announced a currency intervention to weaken the yen. This is the first time since 2004 that the government has taken this measure.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock average climbed 255.17 points to 9,554.48, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.1% to 21,725.64.
Local traders estimated that authorities’ yen sales were worth around 200 billion to 300 billion yen, or $2.4 billion to $3.6 billion, in the early minutes of intervention, while sources put the end-of-day figure at around ¥1 trillion.
In Tokyo, the weakening of the yen helped give support to the Japanese stock market, as the Nikkei overcame morning losses to strongly close up for the day. Exporters jumped in price with the news as a strong yen makes their products less competitive globally.
Toyota Motor Corp. closed up 4.4% , Sony Corp. climbed 4.4% in Tokyo trade and Canon Inc., the world’s largest camera maker, rallied 1.9%.
While Japanese share prices rose, Chinese shares declined on speculation the government will be taking actions to curb property prices.
Elsewhere:
South Korea's Kospi rose 0.1%to 1,816.83.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.8% to 4,662.60.
India’s Sensex added 1.1%.
Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Composite Index was down .1%.
Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index jumped 3.6%.
Shanghai Composite was down 1.34%.
Taiwan's Taiex was 0.38% higher.
Singapore's Straits Times Index was up .73%.
New Zealand's NZX-50 down 2.24%.
Philippine shares were .63% lower.
Shares in Thailand were down .29%.
