Asian markets mostly higher, Japan up ahead of BoJ nominees' confirmation

Japan's lower house approved Kuroda as next BoJ Governor and the Parliament will be confirming names of nominees for leading the BoJ tomorrow. Ahead of such event, the Nikkei Stock Average rose +1.16%. Mainland China's Shanghai Composite (+0.29%) and South Korea's Kospi (+0.12%) also moved higher on Thursday. On the other side was Indonesia's Jakarta Composite (-1.32%) and Hong Kong's Hang Seng (-0.35%).

Futures for the French CAC 40 and the German DAX 30 are signaling a higher opening by +0.31% ahead of the ECB monthly report and EMU employment change. The EU Summit meeting starts today, focusing on promoting growth and on national economic policies. “There were some expectations that a bailout for Cyprus would be resolved at this week’s meetings, but that was denied by a German government official yesterday”, wrote TD Securities analysts.