Asia: Stocks higher after India's central bank interest rates cut

Asian stocks were on the high on Thursday amid a weaker yen and an unexpected rate cut by India's central bank.

The Nikkei 225 rose 1.86%, driven by a rebound by energy companies and exporters, thanks to a fall of the yen against the dollar. The dollar rose to 117.72 yen, recovering from 116.07 yen.

Furthermore, Japanese stocks were helped by a resume in the fall of oil prices after rising at a record level since June 2012 on Wednesday.

Sensex was higher 2.66% after India's central bank cut its interest rate to 7.75% due to lower-than-expected inflation.

N+1 Singer broker said: "The oil price [is] obviously a big driver here and India [is] a big beneficiary of this."

Hang Seng was up 0.99% and China's Shanghai climbed 3.54% despite a decline in new loans in December.

Chinese banks lent ¥697.3bn in December compared to ¥852.7bn the month before, and much lower than the ¥890bn forecasts.

However, aggregate financing, a measure of Chinese credit available including shadow banking, rose to ¥1.69tn in December from ¥1.14tn in November. Forecasts expected ¥1.2tn.

Chinese stocks were also helped by investor's confidence on more stimulus measures by the country's government.