Japan leads Asia stocks higher on yen intervention (AP)

TOKYO � Asian stock markets climbed Wednesday, with Japanese shares jumping after the government announced its first currency intervention to weaken the yen since 2004.

The yen had been trading at 15-year highs against the dollar, battering the Japan's vital exporters and undermining an already fragile recovery in the world's No. 3 economy.

Japan's finance minister confirmed that the central bank stepped into the market to sell yen and buy dollars shortly after 10:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT). The dollar bounced up to 84.71 yen from a fresh 15-year-low of 82.87 yen earlier.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average rose 171.00 points, or 1.8 percent, to 9,470.31, reversing course after posting light losses earlier in the morning.

"We have conducted an intervention in order to suppress excessive fluctuations in the currency market," said Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, suggesting Japan might intervene again.

The move comes a day after Prime Minister Naoto Kan held onto power after fending off a challenge from veteran lawmaker Ichiro Ozawa for the ruling party presidency. Ozawa had advocated currency intervention, but Kan had until now been reluctant to act.

A strong yen hurts exporters by reducing the value of repatriated profits and making their products less competitive abroad. Intervention sent the country's big exporters broadly higher. Toyota Motor Corp. soared 3.5 percent, and Sony Corp. rose 2.4 percent.

Stock markets elsewhere in Asia were more muted.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.1 percent to 21,722.00, South Korea's Kospi rose 0.2 percent to 1,818.21, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.5 percent to 4,650.1.

Wall Street fell Tuesday as worries returned about Europe's economy.

The Dow dropped 17.64, or 0.2 percent, to close at 10,526.49 and the S&P 500 lost 0.8 point, or 0.1 percent, to end at 1,121.10. The Nasdaq edged up 4.06, or 0.2 percent, at 2,289.77.

Benchmark crude for October delivery was down 61 cents at $76.18 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.2957 from $1.2990 late Tuesday in New York.

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