Asian shares rise, Tokyo surges despite quake

HONG KONG: Asian shares rose on Friday, with Tokyo almost two percent up, despite Japan's northeast coast being hit by one of the biggest tremors to rattle the region since last month's deadly earthquake.

The 7.1 magnitude aftershock on Thursday killed four and cut power to millions of households in parts of the country struggling to recover from the March 11 tragedy while also sparking a tsunami alert, which was soon cancelled.

However, authorities reported no damage to the nation's nuclear power stations.

Tokyo's Nikkei surged 1.85 percent, or 177.15 points, to 9,786.08, with stocks again boosted by ongoing weakness in the yen. Hong Kong put on 0.68 percent in the afternoon and Shanghai rose 0.33 percent. Seoul ended 0.27 percent, or 5.83 points, higher at 2,127.97.

TEPCO jumped 23.52 percent to end at 420 yen.

Market-watchers said Friday's rise in TEPCO came as the Tokyo Stock Exchange imposed a temporarily higher margin rate requirement on new investors, meaning they will have to stump up more cash if they speculate on TEPCO.

Sydney ended 0.66 percent, or 32.5 points, higher at 4,940.6 and Singapore added 0.49 percent, or 15.66 points, to 3,187.31.

On currency markets the euro edged higher after the European Central Bank on Thursday did as expected and raised interest rates for the first time since July 2008, by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent.

The euro was at $1.4401 from $1.4306 late Thursday in New York, its highest level since January 2010, while the single European currency was at 122.77 to the euro from 122.02.

Against the dollar the yen was at 85.22 from 85.00 yen.(AFP)