SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific stocks were higher in Thursday morning trade, as investors in the region look ahead to the Bank of Japan’s latest monetary policy decision.

The Nikkei 225Japan experienced a slight increase while the Topix index rose 0.31%.

The government released data Thursday showing that Japan’s March retail sales rose above expectations. Retail sales rose 0.9% to March compared with a previous year, which is higher than the 0.4% forecast by Reuters.

At 11:00 AM HK/SIN, the Bank of Japan will announce its most recent monetary policy decision.

South Korea KospiThe rate of growth was 0.32% S&P/ASX 200Australia saw an increase of 0.94%

MSCI’s Asia-Pacific share index outside Japan was 0.21 percent higher.

Asia-Pacific investors will keep an eye on developments in the Covid situation in China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for an “all-out” effort to construct infrastructure. He made these comments as mainland China faces its worst Covid-19 epidemic since the early 2020 pandemic.

Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 gained 0.21% to 4,183.96. Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 61.75 points or 0.19% to 33.301.93 Tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was unchanged at 12,488.93.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 102.985 — continuing to hold above the 102 levels it crossed earlier this week.

The Japanese yenThe dollar traded at 128.37 dollars, which is weaker than the levels of below 127.4 that were seen earlier in this week. The Australian dollarThe price of the currency changed at $0.7118, a decrease from levels higher than $0.72 earlier in week.