Asia: Nikkei surges higher as China plots Asia-Pacific FTA

Japan's Nikkei continued its ascent after the unexpected new monetary policy stimulus announced by the Bank of Japan on Friday.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange's main index closed up 2.73%, with the USD/JPY also strengthening to yet another year high on the 60th anniversary of the release of Godzilla.

A fresh set of data from the country was more mixed, with manufacturing PMI edging higher to 52.4 in October but the month's vehicles sales dwindling 9.1% year-on-year.

As world leaders prepare to fly in for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next Monday, Beijing denied reports that the US had blocked its plans to put the proposed Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) on the agenda.

China is looking to promote the FTAAP as opposed to the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) plan, a trade agreement that would exclude the People's Republic.

The TPP deal could cost China roughly $100bn a year in lost exports, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

"We hope we can adopt some concrete measures to make progress on the path to realising the (FTAAP) vision presented by leaders in 2006," said assistant commerce minister Wang Shouwen, according to Reuters.

"In establishing the FTAAP, so far we have unanimous support from all members. Of course, we are still in discussion on some details," he said.

Asked about a Wall Street Journal report on 2 November, which said the US had blocked Chinese attempts to agree the launch of a feasibility study on the FTAAP at the APEC forum, Wang said there were "no such blockages or conflicts".

As proposed, the FTAAP would take over from existing free trade agreements among Asia-Pacific economies and “will help to integrate regional bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms and reduce the risk of overlap and fragmentation,” according to Xinhua.