Asian Shares Higher in Wake of G-20 Meet

Japanese stocks moved higher on Monday, while the rest of the region made only small gains, after a Group of 20 meeting ended with a plan to spur economic growth.

The main economic news out over the weekend came from Australia, where G-20 officials ended a summit over the weekend saying that they would look to boost global growth by more than $2 trillion over the next few years under a strategy crafted by the International Monetary Fund.

Under the plan, advanced economies would continue to implement easy money policies, while emerging markets would work to restructure their economies and keep inflation at bay.

The Nikkei started the session with a fall, but quickly flipped into positive territory, as the yen weakened slightly in Asian trade. The Nikkei Stock Average was up 0.6%, with the dollar last at Yen102.63, compared with Yen102.48 late Friday in New York.

Tokyo was adding to strong gains from last week, with the index up 3.9% over the previous five sessions--its first weekly gain in 2014. The market was boosted by a surprise Bank of Japan announcement last week to increase incentives designed to lift bank lending.

The exchange rate between the dollar and the yen could be impacted later in the week by a string of upcoming U.S. economic indicators--such as January new home sales and durable goods orders, as well as revised fourth-quarter gross domestic product figures.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2%, despite a number of major stocks going ex-dividend--meaning that new buyers of the stock will no longer receive the next dividend. Retailer Wesfarmers lost 2.5% and Telstra Corp. was 2.9% lower.

South Korea's Kospi was up 0.1%.

Write to Daniel Inman at [e-mail]

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires