Tokyo leads region to higher close

Hopes are high for Junichiro Koizumi's weekend meeting with George Bush

TOKYO, Japan -- Tokyo stocks snapped a two-day losing streak to end sharply higher on Friday. Other Asian markets also were stronger, with Australia hitting a record high.

Japan's top semiconductor maker Toshiba Corp rose 3.62 percent to 659 yen, helping the tech-sensitive Nikkei average gain 289.17 points or 2.28 percent to 12,969.05.

The broader capital-weighted TOPIX index finished 22.23 points or 1.74 percent higher at 1,300.98. It has gained 1.35 percent since the beginning of this year.

In Sydney, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 closed 2.04 percent higher, putting on 69.8 points to end the financial year at a record 3490.3. It gained 45 points in the final 15 minutes of trading.

The big movers were media giant News Corp, leading banks and the country's biggest telco, Telstra which picked up 7 cents to A$5.38 after hitting a low of A$5.28 earlier in the week.

Korea, Taiwan, HK all stronger

Korea's Kospi closed 11.86 points up at 595.13, while Taiwan's Taiex put on 114.88 points or 2.4 percent to close at 4883.43.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 214.71 points for a 1.6 percent gain to 13,042.53.

In Japan, tech issues were cheered by a U.S. court decision that overturned a ruling that would have split up software giant Microsoft Corp.

"The news on Microsoft warms up the market's sentiment," said Tsuyoshi Segawa, equity strategist at Shinko Securities.

Hopes high for Koizumi-Bush talks

Hopes that a weekend meeting between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush may prove supportive for Koizumi's economic policies also helped Tokyo's broad-based advance on Friday.

"Speculation that the market may move higher on Monday on the summit meeting's expected success is discouraging investors from selling," said Toshihiko Matsuno, deputy general manager at Sakura Friend Securities.

Hitachi Ltd jumped 3.9 percent to 1,225 yen and Fujitsu Ltd gained 2.66 percent to 1,310.

Other high-tech stocks rose, led by Tokyo Electron Ltd, Japan's biggest maker of semiconductor equipment, which soared 5.45 percent to 7,550 yen. Sharp Corp, the top liquid crystal maker, climbed 2.66 percent to 1,700 yen.

The Bank of Japan's June "tankan" survey of corporate sentiment is due out at 8:50 a.m. on Monday.

"We know the result is not going to be pretty. The key point is how bad it will be," said Tetsuya Ishijima, chief strategist at Okasan Securities.

Reuters contributed to this report.