06:44 AM EDT, 10/10/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Asian stock markets gained ground Thursday on the disclosure of stimulus from Beijing's central bank, Wall Street cues and foreign-exchange rates of Japanese yen.

Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo finished in the green, as did most other regional exchanges.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 opened higher on New York signals and held ground, finishing up 0.3% as tech issues rose on overnight gains by US peers. A softer yen aided exporter stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 102.93 to 39,380.89 as gaining issues outnumbered losers 149 to 74.

Leading the upside was camera-house Nikon, up 5.6%, while retail conglomerate Aeon declined 8.7%, the latter after reporting earnings.

In economic news, Japan's producer price index, or PPI, in September rose 2.8% from a year earlier, but was unchanged from August, reported the Bank of Japan.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index opened sharply higher, wobbled, but finished up 3% after the People's Bank of China disclosed a $70.7 billion swap facility intended to boost the nation's equity markets.

Mainland China-based stock brokerages, mutual funds and insurance companies can swap their stocks and bonds for liquid government bonds and central-bank bills, the central bank said. In brief, the facility will provide liquidity to institutional investors to buy stocks.

The broad gauge Hang Seng rose 614.74 to 21,251.98, as gaining issues outnumbered losers 77 to five. The Hang Seng TECH Index gained 2.1% on the day, while the Mainland Properties Index rose 3.2%.

Leading the upside was China Resources Beer, gaining 10.4%, while Semiconductor Manufacturing International fell 6.2%.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite rose 1.3% to 3,301.93.

On the other regional exchanges, the S. Korean KOSPI rose 0.2%; the Taiwan TWSE inclined 0.2%; the Australian ASX 200 added 0.4%; the Singapore Straits Times Index fell 0.3%, and the Thai Set inclined 0.8%. In late trading in Mumbai, the Sensex was up 0.2%.