Asia: Most stocks higher as BoJ keeps stimulus programme unchanged

Most Asian stocks rose on Tuesday as the Bank of Japan (BoJ) kept its stimulus programme unchanged despite warning that cheaper energy prices will bring inflation to a halt.

Japanese Nikkei 225 was up 0.99%, hitting a 15-year high, after the BoJ voted to keep the size of the bank’s annual asset purchases at ¥80trn.

The coincident index, which tracks the current state of the Japanese economy, grew to 113.3 in January from 110.9 the month before.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite index rose 1.55% as investors speculated about more policy measures in the second largest economy in the world.

Premier Li Keqiang said at the National People's Congress over the weekend that the Chinese government is ready to boost the private sector and domestic demand if growth continues to decrease.

"The good news is that in the past couple of years we did not resort to massive stimulus measures for economic growth. We still have more tools in our toolbox," he said at the only press conference he holds each year.

Capital Economics analysts said: "If there is one key message on the economy to take away from the National People’s Congress it is that the government is aware of downside risks to growth but confident that it has the tools and the policy space to deal with them.

"Given the weakness of incoming data, this means that further policy support is highly likely."

However, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.2%.

Australia's ASX was up 0.77% as the central bank said the economy may need a further interest rate cut towards April as it is expanding a slow pace.

In company news, Japanese Hitachi gained 4.33% and Sony rose 4.29%. Also in Japan, Toshiba was up 2.48% after unveiling new hard drive products.

Australia's BHP Billiton rose 1.26% after the the world's largest miner recommended shareholders to approve its proposed demerger as it spins off its non-core activities into a new company called South32.

Hong Kong's suitcases and travel bags company Samsonite fell 1.58% despite reporting a 5.8% increase in its full-year net profits.