Investing.com - Asian stocks were mixed on Tuesday while the Nikkei rose sharply after the Bank of Japan decided to leave its policy target unchanged, maintaining the pace of large-scale financial asset purchases.
The Bank of Japan board also decided unanimously on Tuesday to double the scale of its program to make low-interest loans to financial institutions leading to or investing in growth-oriented sectors and projects. The maximum amount of the loans will be raised to JPY7 trillion from JPY3.5 trillion.
The BOJ board also voted to expand another facility aimed at stimulating commercial bank lending that allows institutions to borrow funds from the BOJ up to an amount that is twice as much as the net increase in their lending.
Renesas Electronics rose 9.3% on reports that it will mass produce chips with five times higher data-processing speed than currently used models in automobiles. Mitsui and Co. rose 1.7%.
In China, Foreign Direct Investment in January went up 16.1% to USD10.76 billion from 5.3% increase in December.
Around the region, Japan's Nikkei rose 2.56%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.04% while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.49%.
Even with today’s gains, the Nikkei is down around 10% since the beginning of the year, making it the worst performing market in Asia. Other Asian markets have also been largely falling during this year after a global selloff, though the trend is reversing in recent sessions.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX traded 0.01% up after shares of several companies reacted to earning news.
The world’s largest mining company by output BHP Billiton rose 1.6% after its net profit for six months up to December was higher than expected at USD8.1 billion. However, Seven West Media fell 3% after its revenue for the six months fell 1.2%, though the company returned to profits in the first half of its fiscal. Rail and port operator Asciano also fell 0.2% after a decline in profits.
On Monday U.S. markets remained closed for a public holiday, while European stocks were mixed to higher in quiet trade.