Asian stocks close on a high


Among Japanese big banks, UFJ did best Friday, closing 1.85% higher

Staff and wires

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Asian stocks closed on a high Friday, with Japan up 2 percent after another sharp rally on Wall Street. Exporters led the way, helped by a weaker yen.

The revelations of another $3.3 billion in accounting errors at WorldCom had little impact on Asia.(Full Story)

Instead, the region focused on the surge in U.S. markets Thursday, which saw the bluechip Dow Jones industrial average jump 3 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq put on 2.8 percent. (Full U.S. roundup)

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 average finished at 9999.79, up 200 points or 2.04 percent. For the week, the Nikkei put on more than 3 percent.

The broader, capital-weighted Topix rose 2.17 percent to 980.79. Export-driven automakers, techs such as Canon and Matsushita, and big banks were prominent gainers.

Around the region, Taiwan made the strongest showing, with the Taiex closing up more than 3.2 percent at 4851.44.

In Seoul, the Kospi finished 1.16 percent higher at 692.45. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index performed strongly, but dipped near the end to close half a percent higher at 10,014.06.

Australia's S&P/ASX200 finished almost 1 percent higher at 3106.8. Market heavyweight News Corp put on 3.5 percent to A$9.57.

Coca-Cola Amatil rose 3.74 percent to A$6.38 after reporting a 22 percent lift in first-half profit to A$94 million.(Full Story)

N.Z. up, Singapore closed


Taiwan's market was the best performer Friday, with the Taiex up 3.22 percent

New Zealand's Top 40 also rose about 1 percent, with Telecom NZ putting on 2.3 percent to NZ$4.98 after reporting a full-year loss of about $85 million.(Full Story)

Singapore's market was closed Friday for a public holiday.

The third-day rally in the U.S. helped Asian stocks across the board. In Tokyo, the export-dependent automotive sector rose as the dollar strengthened to 121 yen.

A weaker yen makes exports more profitable for Japanese makers.

Toyota surged 4.84 percent to 3140 yen, Honda rose 2.83 percent to 5080 yen and Nissan jumped 3 percent to 896 yen.

"The current momentum in the dollar, partly due to Japanese institutional buying in U.S. assets recently, is likely to continue for a while. That is making shares of exporters more attractive than before," Kenji Kobata of Ace Securities told Reuters news agency.

But Terushi Hirotama, head of trading at Ichiyoshi Securities, said there was a "thick wall ahead" near the 10,000 level for the Nikkei.

The market's rise came as the International Monetary Fund warned Japan's recovery could be short-lived unless it tackles banking and corporate reform. (Full Story)

Bridgestone investment


South Korea's market was another strong performer in the region

Bridgestone, Japan's largest tiremaker, rose 6.4 percent to 1685 yen on news it plans to boost capacity at its 12 plants across the world by an annual eight million units.

Bridgestone said it would invest about 30 billion yen ($248 million) over two to three years to boost annual output capacity by five percent worldwide. It will announce its half-year earnings later in the day.

The big four banks Mizuho, UFJ, MTFG and SMBC all ended higher. UFJ did best, up 1.85 percent to 275,000 yen.

In the telco sector, market giant NTT rose 2 percent and mobile phone subsidiary NTT DoCoMo added 2.9 percent to 284,000 yen.

Among tech-related stocks, Canon jumped 3.85 percent. Consumer electronics leader Sony added 1.9 percent after a flat start. But computer and chipmaker Fujitsu dipped a little, closing 0.63 percent lower at 626 yen.

Posco jumps

In Seoul, steelmaker Posco is up 4.25 percent to 110,500 won on improving sentiment about the global economy. Kookmin Bank jumped 2.5 percent to 53,100 won.

Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics was another gainer, up 1.75 percent to 319,000 won. SK Telecom and Hyundai Motor made modest gains.

In Australia, resources giant BHP Billiton rose 3 percent to A$9.28. It is a key partner in the North West Shelf consortium that won a A$25 billion contract Thursday to supply LNG to China.(Full Story)

Hong Kong's bluechips were broadly higher, with China Mobile up 1.64 percent to HK$21.75 and banking giant HSBC up 2 percent to HK$88.75.

In Taiwan, chip foundry TSMC closed 3.9 percent higher at T$51.00. Its smaller rival UMC put on 3.57 percent higher to T$29.00.

After troubles earlier in the week stemming from President Chen Shui-bian's weekend remarks about Taiwan being a "separate country" to China, tech stocks finished stronger. Asustek Computer led the way, up 6.2 percent to T$94.00.

Reuters contributed to this report.