The Bank of Japan surprised markets with an announcement that they had voted 5-4 to significantly increase their monetary stimulus, boosting the target level from 65 trillion Yen to 80 trillion, nearly £500 billion. They also decided to increase their purchases of government bonds targeting long dated bonds in particular. The Nikkei 225 index immediately jumped 3% on the announcement but there was more good news to come from the Government Pension Investment Fund, the largest retirement fund in the world. Speaking a few hours on from the Bank of Japan announcement, the GPIF, said that they would be increasing their allocation to equities from 12% up to 25% whilst lowering their allocation to bonds from 60% down to 35%. The change boosted the Nikkei 225 index even higher and ended the day up 4.8%, its biggest one rise since June last year.