Nikkei Opens Above 11,500 On Reports Of BOJ Chief, TPP

TOKYO (NQN)--Tokyo stocks opened sharply higher Monday, with the Nikkei Stock Average jumping 178 points to start the day in the upper-11,500 range, the highest level since Sept. 29, 2008.

The Nikkei reported before the bell that the government will likely appoint Haruhiko Kuroda as the next governor of the Bank of Japan. Kuroda, who now serves as the president of the Asian Development Bank, favors the introduction of bold monetary easing steps. The report prompted investors to buy stocks, while the yen depreciated.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Barack Obama met in Washington Friday. They confirmed that Japan will participate in talks on the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, which pushed up the benchmark index.

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