Nikkei hits 7-year high as BoJ expands monetary easing

The Nikkei surged 755.56 points or 4.83% to end at 16,413.76, its highest level since November 2007

Shares in Japan surged the most in the Asia-Pacific region on Friday and the benchmark Nikkei ended at seven-year high after the Bank of Japan surprisingly expanded its monetary easing measures in an effort to boost the economy which was saddled by the sales tax hike.

The Nikkei jumped 755.56 points or 4.83% to end at 16,413.76, its highest level since 7 November 2007 when it had ended at 16,096.68.

The monetary base will be expanded to about 80 trillion yen compared with the previous target of an annual increase of about 10-20 trillion yen. The Bank also plans to purchase additional Japanese Government Bonds (JGB) worth 30 trillion yen amounting to 80 trillion yen and extend the average remaining maturity of the Bank's JGB purchases to about 7-10 years, Bank of Japan said in a release on Friday.

The Bank also plans to triple the amount of purchases of exchange-traded funds and Japan real estate investment trusts to 3 trillion yen and by about 90 billion yen, respectively, the release said.

Further, data released showed that Japan's core consumer prices increased 3% in September 2014 compared to the corresponding month last year and marginally slower than 3.1% rise in the previous month.

Index heavyweight SoftBank led the gains on the Nikkei along with banks shares while real estate companies were the top gainers in percentage terms.

Of the 225 shares that comprise the benchmark Nikkei 219 shares ended with gains ranging from 0.2-15.6% each.

Index heavyweight SoftBank ended up 2.6% at 7,939 yen while bank shares Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Japan's third-largest bank, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group contributed the most to the gains on the Nikkei.

Exporter shares such as Toyota and Canon ended higher after the yen slumped against the dollar to its lowest level since January 2008 post the monetary measures announced by Bank of Japan.

Realty stocks were among the top Nikkei gainers in percentage terms with Sumitomo Realty & Development Co, Tokyu Fudosan Holdings Corp, Tokyo Tatemono Co and Mitsubishi Estate Co rising 12.3-15.6% each.

Among other major indices in the region, Shanghai Composite, Straits Times and Hang Seng ended up 1.2% each.