Japan's Nikkei rises on confirmation of Kuroda as BoJ Governor

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose by +1.45% as the upper house confirmed Haruhiko Kuroda as the new BoJ Governor, and Kikuo Iwata and Hiroshi Nakaso as Deputy Governors, and they will start their jobs in March 20. “Confirmation of new BoJ Governor Kuroda was a mere formality, and we await the first BoJ meeting on April 3 to see if strong words are backed by aggressive deeds”, wrote TD Securities analysts.

Mainland China's Shanghai Composite moved higher by +0.36%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained +0.04%. South Korea's Kospi dropped -0.78% and India's Bombay Sensitive eased -0.70%.

Futures for the German DAX 30 (+0.43%) and the French CAC 40 (+0.23%) are signaling a higher opening ahead of EMU CPI and the last day of the EU Summit.