Asian indexes ended mostly higher Friday, with a rally in crude and metals prices lifting shares of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto in Sydney, Inpex Holdings in Tokyo, Cnooc in Hong Kong and Oil & Natural Gas Corp. in Mumbai.
The Nikkei 225 average added 1.36 percent to 16,505.63 points, rebounding from Thursday's 0.5-percent loss.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.8 percent to close above 30,000 for the first time as property companies rose on hopes of a cut in U.S. interest rates. The blue chip index finished the day at 30,405.22.
Shares of Inpex Holdings rose 3.3 percent and Nippon Oil Corp. stock climbed 1.6 percent in Tokyo. Shares of auto major Nissan Motor Co. ended 3.2 percent higher before it announced a better-than-expected, second-quarter earnings report.
Shares of Sony jumped 8.8 percent after the company late Thursday said group net profit for the second quarter totaled 73.7 billion yen ($645.5 million), up from 1.7 billion yen a year ago.
And Honda Motor Co. stock jumped 8.9 percent after it said Thursday group net profit shot up 63 percent in the July-September quarter as a weaker yen and solid sales of small, fuel-efficient vehicles boosted its bottom line.
In Sydney, shares of BHP added 2.3 percent and Woodside Petroleum advanced 2.8 percent. In Hong Kong, shares of Cnooc jumped 3 percent, while ONGC stock gained 2.2 percent in Mumbai.
ELSEWHERE:
BANGKOK: Thailand's main stock index gained 0.1 percent to 894.57 in a hectic trading day. Gains in energy and banking blue chips pushed the SET index to an 11-year high at 911.60, but it quickly fell back as short-term investors cashed out.
JAKARTA: Indonesia benchmark index on the Jakarta Stock Exchange rose 1.1 percent to 2,624.43.
KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index rose 1.5 percent to a record close of 1,398.35 on broad buying support by both local and foreign funds.
MANILA: The 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange Index inched up 0.45 percent to 3,784.88.
SEOUL: The Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 2.6 percent to 2,028.06.
SINGAPORE: The Straits Times Index rose 1.7 percent to 3,771.55 points
SYDNEY: Surging commodity prices pushed resource stocks to big gains after a nervous week on the Australian share market. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.2 percent to 6,700.6
TAIPEI: The Weighted Price Index rose 0.66 percent to 9,631.51 points.
WELLINGTON: New Zealand stocks fell as top stocks such as Contact Energy and Telecom weighed the index down. The benchmark NZX-50 index dropped 1 percent to 4,226.71.
with files from other wire services
