Asian stocks surge on strong Wall Street lead, Europe hopes

Japan's Nikkei index ended the day up 2.28 percent as investors picked up bargains after a five-day losing streak. Sydney was up 1.91 percent.

Hong Kong closed up 1.1 percent, while Shanghai was up 0.38 percent, a 6.1 percent rise for the week as a whole, its biggest weekly rise this year.

Markets were lifted mainly by Wall Street's rebound, which wiped out a 109-point loss suffered a day earlier after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke warned of an “unusually uncertain” outlook.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 201.77 points (1.99 percent) on Thursday, while the tech-rich Nasdaq gained 58.56 points (2.68 percent), with the rise mainly fuelled by robust earnings results.

In Japan, the yen's recent strength has generally weighed on exporters, but with the euro firmer, exporters out-performed on Friday. Sony added 4.79 percent and Panasonic 3.29 percent, while Toyota Motor rose 1.64 percent and Honda Motor 2.16 percent.

“Gains for the day were broad based and saw the heavyweight materials, financials, and energy and consumer sectors all convincingly higher,” commented IG Markets analyst Cameron Peacock in Australia.

Hong Kong also enjoyed broad-based gains, with an impending land auction next week giving property developers momentum. In Shanghai, banks gained support from optimism about their first-half earnings.

Agricultural Bank of China ended up 5.45 percent in Hong Kong. AgBank was at its highest levels in both Hong Kong and Shanghai since its lackluster dual listing a week ago, buoyed by news of major investments by Morgan Stanley and U.S. investment fund Capital Group.

Wall Street's rebound was largely based on better-than-expected corporate earnings and positive European economic data.

Traders shrugged off mixed data on the U.S. economy, including a larger-than-expected surge in initial jobless claims and a fall in sales of existing homes.

All eyes will be on the results of European banking “stress tests” later, but European markets proved buoyant on Thursday and held steady on Friday amid optimism about the results and indications of strong eurozone private sector activity.

In other markets:

— Manila closed flat, gaining 1.20 points to 3,416.10.

Philippine National Bank rose 12.99 percent, while SM Prime Holdings ended unchanged at 10.50 pesos. Philippine Long Distance Telephone was up 0.82 percent.

— Taipei closed up 1.24 percent, or 94.88 points, at 7,761.22. Hon Hai rose 5.05 percent, while TSMC was up 1.29 percent.

— Seoul closed up 1.30 percent, or 22.53 points, at 1,758.06 on U.S. overnight gains and foreign buying of local blue chips.

— Wellington closed up 0.45 percent, or 13.55 points, at 2,994.90.

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