Asian stock markets finished mostly higher on Friday as a tech led rebound on Wall Street cheered sentiment for the information-technology (IT) sector.
Some positive earnings by Japanese companies and steady economic data helped lift the Nikkei 225 index by nearly two percent while an upbeat outlook for the semiconductor sector by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world's largest chip maker, helped boost stocks in Taipei by 1.33 percent.
Australian shares also gained strongly on the back of mining firm Rio Tinto's strong interim results.
On the downside Chinese shares weakened 1.52 percent as petrochemical stocks tumbled amid worries Exxon Mobil Corp would sell down its stake in Sinopec. Sinopec confirmed Exxon was now clear to dispose of its holding although it was unaware of any imminent plan to do so.
Japanese share prices rose 1.88 percent on Friday following a rebound by technology stocks on Wall Street after a long slump and strong first quarter earnings from high-tech companies, dealers said.
The broader market was also buoyed by the release of Japan's jobs data on Friday, which sparked active buy-backs of domestic demand-linked shares, dealers said.
Japan's unemployment rate in June was 4.6 percent, unchanged from a near four-year low in May, the government said.
It also announced that salaried household spending rose 4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to June, the third straight quarterly rise, although it fell 1.3 percent in June itself.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei-225 index gained 208.94 points to 11,325.78. The broader TOPIX index of all First Section shares added 17.64 points or 1.57 percent to 1,139.62. Volume was 1.06 billion shares.
Matsushita Electric Industrial, the world's biggest consumer electronics company, announced a more than 12-fold jump in net profit to US$304 million in the April to June quarter on Thursday on robust sales of digital products.
It followed buoyant earnings from other high-tech companies including Canon, Advantest, NEC and Mitsubishi Electric.
"The strong first quarter by Matsushita Electric eased concerns over the trend of sales of digital products," Shinko Securities equity strategist Tsuyoshi Segawa said.
South Korean share prices closed up but off their intraday highs as light profit taking emerged to cap technical-led gains, dealers said.
The composite index closed up 4.73 points, or 0.64 percent, at 735.34, off a high of 741.32. Volume remained thin at 282 million shares worth 1.3 trillion won (US$1.1 billion dollars).
"It's nothing more than a technical rebound," Daishin Securities analyst Yang Kyung-Shik said.
Yang said a negative IT industry outlook, deterioration in stock demand-and-supply conditions and underlying concern about higher oil prices will continue to cast shadows over the bourse next month.
Hynix Semiconductor fell 700 won to 9,000 on concern about possible falls in DRAM prices in the second half. Samsung SDI lost 1,500 to 109,500 on worries about weaker margins in coming quarters.
Samsung Electronics, however, closed up 6,000 at 417,000 on modest bargain-hunting in line with its stronger US peers overnight.
Hong Kong share prices closed 0.45 percent higher on hopes of strong first half results from major companies, but worries that local banks may raise interest rates soon pared some of the earlier gains, dealers said.
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