BANGKOK (AP) — Asian markets perked up Wednesday, calmed by signs of progress in Japan's battle to contain a nuclear crisis as its central bank meets to determine what measures are needed to help the country through its worst disaster since World War II. Japan's battered Nikkei 225 rose marginally to 9,617.34, with some major exporters clawing back ground lost after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami pummeled the country's industrial northeast. Yamaha Motor Corp. rose 2.8 percent, Canon Inc. was up 1.1 percent, and Hitachi Ltd. was up 0.2 percent. Toyota Motor Corp. was down 0.2 percent after Moody's Investors Service said it may downgrade Toyota's credit rating due to the financial fallout from suspended car production. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.5 percent to 24,279.15 as investors scooped up retail shares in clothing and jewelry, anticipating a spending splurge during Easter. Oriental Watch Co. Ltd. soared 8.1 percent. South Korea's Kospi index was slightly higher to 2,130.81, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2 percent to 4,907.80. Benchmarks in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan also gained. Late Tuesday, China's central bank raised key interest rates for the fourth time since October in an effort to dampen high inflation. The series of rate hikes reflects concerns about overheating and excess liquidity in the Chinese economy that are driving up prices, especially of food. But the action did little to shake investor confidence. China's Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.8 percent at 2,991.46. "I don't think investors paid too much attention to this sort of long-awaited interest rate hike in China," said Kwong Man Bun, chief operating officer at KGI Securities in Hong Kong. "It seems investors are getting less sensitive to the news in Japan." Meanwhile, Portugal's financial woes deepened after Moody's downgraded its credit rating for the second time in less than a month, further fueling fears the debt-laden country will have no option but to seek an international financial rescue package soon. The Bank of Japan started a two-day policy meeting Wednesday and investors will be looking to see if it enacts any further easing measures. The central bank has pumped billions of yen into the economy as it tries to keep liquidity flowing through the system in the wake of the disasters. It has also received international support to stem the export-sapping appreciation of the yen. The dollar rose to 85.35 yen from 84.88 yen late Tuesday in New York. The euro rose to $1.4255 from $1.4245. A rare bit of relief for quake-battered Japan came early Wednesday, when workers at Japan's tsunami-damaged Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear complex finally stemmed a tide of radiation that was pouring into the Pacific Ocean. But highly contaminated water continues to pool around the complex. Wall Street's stock indexes were left little changed Tuesday after minutes from the most recent meeting of the Federal Reserve's policy committee showed few signs that the central bank plans to expand its stimulus program. The minutes, from the Fed's meeting on March 15, confirmed that members of the central bank are split about whether it needs to tighten credit later this year to ward off inflation. All the committee's members agreed that the economy is improving. The Dow Jones industrial average fell less than 0.1 percent to 12,393.90. The S&P 500 index was essentially unchanged at 1,332.63. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.1 percent to 2,791.19. Benchmark crude for May delivery was down 21 cents at $108.13 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 13 cents to settle at $108.34 on Tuesday.

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