TOKYO, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average

futures held gains from the morning on Friday after the Bank of

Japan raised interest rates.

Futures were last up 1% as of 0323 GMT.

Japan's central bank hiked the benchmark lending rate by a

quarter point to 0.5%, as had been widely expected by market

participants following hawkish hints from central bank officials

this month.

(Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Muralikumar

Anantharaman)