TOKYO: Tokyo stocks gained 0.25 percent to close at a fresh eight-month high on Friday as the yen lost more ground against the dollar, shrugging off a weak lead from Wall Street.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 39.09 points to 15,948.29, its best finish since early January, while the Topix index of all first-section shares rose 0.19 percent, or 2.48 points, to 1,313.72.
The Nikkei is now within a few hundred points of its 2013 high amid growing expectations that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will soon expand its monetary easing programme.
"As we've seen in recent sessions, most of the buying is based on the weakening yen, not on anything fundamental," an equity trading director at a European brokerage told Dow Jones Newswires.
"The economic numbers since the April 1 tax cut were not at all encouraging. Expectations from overseas investors for more easing steps remain."
On Thursday, BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that he would widen the central bank's monetary base if necessary as it looks to hit a 2.0 percent inflation target by next year -- a key part of Tokyo's bid to conquer the deflation that has weighed on Japan's economy for years.
"If we face difficulty achieving that goal, we would adjust monetary policy without hesitation, even if it takes the form of additional easing or anything else," Kuroda told reporters in Tokyo after meeting with Abe.
The central bank last week held off further stimulus despite a sharp contraction in the economy between April and June largely owing to a sales tax hike, in turn boosting expectations that the BoJ will act at its next meeting in October.
Further easing would tend to weaken the yen and lift Japanese shares as the cheaper currency inflates exporters' profitability.
Sony shares rose 1.06 percent to close at 2,127.0 yen while Toyota gained 1.36 percent to 6,303.0 yen.
In Asian forex trading, the dollar jumped again to 107.39 yen, from 107.11 yen in New York. The dollar last breached the 107-yen level in September 2008.
Wall Street put in a mixed session with the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipping 0.12 percent as concerns about the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence and weak global inflation data weighed on sentiment. (AFP)
