Nikkei surges nearly 2 pct on central banks move

Tokyo stocks closed sharply higher Thursday with the key Nikkei index jumping 1.93 percent on central banks' coordinated credit-easing, which was announced last night. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Average advanced 162.77 points from Wednesday at 8,597.38, marking the highest closing since Nov. 14. The broader Topix index expanded 1.55 points, or 1.59 percent, to 740.01. Six major central banks, including the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve announced coordinated actions to provide liquidity support to ease global financial strains on Wednesday. The central banks have agreed to lower pricing on the existing temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangements by 50 basis points so that the new rate will be the U.S. dollar overnight index swap (OIS) rate plus 50 basis points.