Stock markets in Greater China posted large gains on Friday on the back of comments from U.S. President Donald Trump and a news report that both indicated potential progress in Washington's trade negotiations with Beijing.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 heightened 556.01 points, or 2.6%, to 22,243.66.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index triumphed 1,070.35 points, or 4.2%, to 26,486.35
The Japanese yen was at 112.91 against the U.S. dollar after seeing a low of about 113.10 earlier
Those markets, which had been higher all day, climbed higher after Bloomberg reported that Trump had asked officials in his administration to start drafting a potential trade deal with China.
Following the release of that article — which cited four unnamed sources familiar with the matter — many big-name stocks in the Hong Kong markets skyrocketed: Tencent surged 9.3%, ZTEjumped 12.2% and Geely Automobile saw gains of 11.7%.
Shares of Japanese electronic parts maker TDK recovered to see gains of 2%, Taiwanese iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn, rose 1.4% on the day and South Korea's LG Display soared 5.8% by the closing bell.
Some suppliers, however, declined: Component supplier Murata Manufacturing slipped by 0.5% and Taiwan's Pegatron fell 1.1%
South Korea's Kospi jumped with heavyweights Samsung Electronics gaining 4.7%, and SK Hynix hiking 6.3%.
Australian markets forged ahead, despite the energy sector seeing losses of 1.1%, and the heavily weighted financial sub-index declining by 0.4%. The Australian dollar, meanwhile, traded at $0.7237 U.S. after Thursday's rally from the $0.708 handle.
CHINA
The CSI 300 jumped 113.22 points, or 3.6%, to 3,290.25
The new report came amid an already buoyant day for the Greater China markets, which inherited a seemingly positive stateside development: Trump tweeted on Thursday that he had a "long and very good conversation" with Chinese President Xi Jinping in part about trade.
The president also said in his U.S. morning tweet that trade "discussions are moving along nicely" and meetings between the two leaders at the upcoming G-20 summit are being scheduled. U.S. stocks rallied in part on that signalling from the president, with all three major stock indexes seeing gains by the closing bell.
It is unclear how much progress Trump and Xi made toward breaking an impasse over how they will assuage Trump's grievances with Beijing and move toward reducing tariffs. Talks between the two countries have recently stalled as the White House pushes for an end to intellectual property theft by Chinese companies and a reduction in the U.S. trade deficit with China. Beijing has so far appeared unwilling to make major concessions.
In other markets
In Singapore, the Straits Times STI index leaped 55.54 points, or 1.8%, to 3,116.39
In Taiwan, the Taiex index gained 61.85 points, or 0.6%, to 9,906.59
In Korea, the Kospi index moved forward 71.53 points, or 3.5%, at 2,096
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 fell 8.23 points, or 0.1%, to 8,835.60
In Australia, the ASX 200 added 8.41 points, or 0.1%, to 5,849.21
