(Updates prices after BOJ policy decision)

By Kevin Buckland and Rocky Swift

TOKYO, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average

climbed to a new high on Thursday after the Bank of Japan

refrained from raising interest rates.

The yen weakened and Japanese government bond (JGB) futures

pared declines following the central bank's announcement,

despite traders and economists widely expecting no change to

policy this time.

Focus now turns to BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda's news conference

at 0630 GMT for clues on whether a rate hike at the next meeting

in December is a possibility.

The Nikkei climbed as much as 0.6% to reach

51,620.79 for the first time, before trading up 0.5% on the day

at 51,560.70. The broader Topix gained 0.7% to 3,301.17.

"It's impressive that the stock market just keeps going up,

and the inflation rate remains high," said Tohru Sasaki, the

chief strategist at Fukuoka Financial Group and a former BOJ

official.

"There's been pressure from the United States and Treasury

Secretary (Scott) Bessent on the BOJ, but they have maintained

this very strong stance to keep the policy rate at this super

low level."

The yen flipped from a 0.4% gain to fall 0.3% to

153.125 per U.S. dollar.

Benchmark 10-year JGB futures were down 0.13 yen at

136 yen, paring a 0.24 yen decline before the BOJ's decision.

Cash JGBs had not traded since the policy announcement.

(Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Additional reporting by Rocky

Swift; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Subhranshu Sahu)