The Bank of Japan decided Friday to refrain from additional monetary easing despite growing political pressure for it to help prop up the world’s third-largest economy. The central bank also voted unanimously to hold its key interest rate at zero to 0.1 per cent as widely expected. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average (NKY) turned negative after the decision, trading down 0.1 percent at 1:33 p.m. in Tokyo. The index is down about 14 percent from this year’s high in March. The yen strengthened to 78.32 per dollar from 78.46 before the decision.