Tokyo - As more Japanese companies affiliated with collapsed US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, the Japanese government said the nation's markets would only suffer limited negative effects from the fallout.

Sunrise Finance and Lehman Brothers Commercial Mortgage filed for bankruptcy Wednesday with total liabilities of around 7 billion dollars, news reports said.

Tokyo - The Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to maintain its key short-term interest rate unchanged at the end of a two-day meeting on Wednesday.

The bank's policy board voted unanimously to forego another interest rate hike amid the Japanese economy's sluggish growth.

The interest rate has remained fixed since February 2007, when it was raised from 0.25 per cent.

"Economic growth has been sluggish against the backdrop of high energy and materials prices and weaker growth in exports," the bank said in a statement.

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks gained ground early Wednesday on the US Federal Reserve's announcement to help struggling AIG insurance company.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average surged 241.06 points, or 2.08 per cent, to 11,850.78.

The broader Topix index was also up 14.4 points, or 1.29 per cent, to 1,131.97.

The market sentiment improved after the US Federal Reserve announced that it will lend up to 85 billion dollars to AIG to prevent it from falling into bankruptcy.

Tokyo

Tokyo - Japan's central bank on Tuesday pumped 2.5 trillion yen (23.65 billion dollars) into money markets to ease the impact of the failure of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

"The Bank of Japan will carefully monitor the recent developments among US financial institutions and continue to try to secure smooth fund settlements and financial-market stability by implementing appropriate money-market operations," Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said in a statement.