Mainland China markets saw gains on the first trading day of March after soaring in February, with the Shanghai composite seeing its largest monthly gain in almost four years.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 regained 217.53 points, or 1%, to 21,602.69, with shares of conglomerate Softbank Group gaining 1.4%.
The Japanese yen was at 111.80 against the U.S. dollar after seeing an earlier high of 111.31.
The Australian dollar traded at $0.7093 after touching an earlier low of $0.7082.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng recovered 178.99 points, or 0.6%, to 28,812.17
CHINA
In China, the CSI 300 zoomed 80.34 points, or 2.2%, to 3,749.71
A private survey on China's manufacturing sector showed Friday that factory activity shrank for a third straight month in February. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) came in 49.9 for February.
Meanwhile, global index provider MSCI said on Friday that it will quadruple the weighting of Chinese mainland shares in its global benchmarks later this year from 5% to 20%, potentially drawing more than $80 billion of fresh foreign inflows to the world's second-biggest economy.
In other markets
Markets in Taiwan and Korea were shuttered for holidays
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index reacquired 7.71 points, or 0.2%, to 3,220.40
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 gained 26.65 points, or 0.3%, to 9,351.68
In Australia, the ASX 200 added 23.74 points, or 0.4%, to 6,192.73
