World stocks mostly higher, Japan's Nikkei jumps Associated Press Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 1:30 am, Friday, January 25, 2013 BANGKOK (AP) — Japan's benchmark stock index hit a 32-month high Friday as the yen continued to retreat against the dollar and investors cheered the new government's plans to boost the economy. Evan Lucas of IG Markets in Melbourne said he expected to see further surges in Japan's Nikkei 225 index after Yasutoshi Nishimura, a senior vice minister of the Japanese government's Cabinet Office, commented that the yen would fall further. A weaker yen helps Japanese exporters by making products sold abroad less expensive and also helps some of the country's trading partners by increasing demand for the raw materials they ship to Japan, Lucas said. The recent decline in the yen's value against the dollar and drops against other major currencies have been driven by expectations that Japan's central bank will try to engineer inflation by increasing the amount of money in circulation. The bank has been under pressure from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office a month ago, to do more to end Japan's prolonged spell of falling prices known as deflation.