Asian markets traded on an upbeat note Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark lifted by gains in Sharp Corp. and other consumer-electronics makers.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 ended 1.5 percent higher at 15,257.00, while the broader Topix index added 0.8 percent to 1,469.20.
Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng index climbed 2.3 percent, adding 609.83 points to 27,626.92. The China Enterprises Index, a gauge of locally listed mainland companies, added 1.6 percent to 15,981.81.
Share markets in China shrugged off Beijing's announcement Thursday it would boost interest rates for a sixth time this year, lifting the benchmark lending rate to 7.47 percent, an increase of 0.18 of a percentage point effective Friday.
Japanese exporters rallied as the yen weakened against the greenback, with shares of Sony Corp. adding 1.2 percent and Sharp moving up 2.9 percent. The Nikkei newspaper said Sharp will produce LCD panels for Toshiba Corp. under an alliance. Sharp will produce the display panels at a new factory in Osaka Prefecture scheduled to open in 2009. Shares of Toshiba added 2.5 percent.
Shares of Hitachi Ltd. climbed 3.6 percent following a Nikkei report the firm is seeking to sell a 50 percent stake in its ailing U.S. hard-drive subsidiary to investment fund Silver Lake.
But shares of Canon Inc. were a notable exception in Tokyo, declining 2.2 percent.
Resource-related shares tallied gains in Sydney. Shares of Woodside Petroleum added 2.4 percent, as BHP Billiton climbed 0.4 percent.
However, shares of Centro Properties Group fell 15.2 percent to A$1.12. Australian media reports said the property trust had failed to properly disclose more that A$1 billion in debt in recent months.
In Wellington, shares of New Zealand's Auckland International Airport Ltd rose as much as 2.9 percent after the company said it has entered into talks with a second bidder to take over the facility.
Shares of China Construction Bank added 0.3 percent in Hong Kong, moving up after the bank said it's planning capital spending of 31.5 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) for 2008.
Among other financials, China Merchants Bank saw its shares add 1 percent, with Bank of China up 0.3 percent.
Also in Hong Kong, shares of electric utility CLP Holdings climbed 1.5 percent after announcing it plans to raise local electricity fees by 4.5 percent next year to offset rising fuel costs, marking its first hike in 10 years.
ELSEWHERE:
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's KLSE Composite was up 1.1 percent at 1,402.15.
SHANGHAI: Shanghai's Composite Index ended 1.2 percent higher at 5,101.78.
SEOUL: South Korea's Kospi added 1.8 percent to 1,878.
SYDNEY: Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.1 percent at 6,247.0.
WELLINGTON: New Zealand's NZX-50 added 1.2 percent to 3,993.51.
Markets in Indonesia, India and Pakistan were closed for holidays.
with files from other wire services
