Japan stocks rise as Wall St rally sparks gains

TOKYO - Japanese shares roared back Wednesday, led by exporters, after falling oil prices and a U.S. Federal Reserve decision to keep interest rates unchanged sparked a Wall Street rally overnight. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 340.23 points, or 2.63 percent, to 13254.89. The broader Topix index gained 2.37 percent to 1,277.27. The Nikkei, which had lost 3.45 percent over the last four trading sessions, posted its first gain of the month and climbed back above the key 13,000 level. "It's very clear what drove today's gains--the rise in U.S. stocks," said Tsuyoshi Segawa, equity strategist at Shinko Securities in Tokyo. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average shot up more than 330 points overnight, and all the major indexes had gains approaching 3 percent after the Fed said it was keeping its target for the... [read full story]