HONG KONG: Asian markets rose Friday, rebounding from the previous day's losses, as stimulus moves by the central banks of the United States, Europe and Japan outweighed another round of weak economic data.
Shares looked set to see a positive end to a week that saw the Bank of Japan follow the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB) in unveiling plans to boost growth, but also showed manufacturing in China continues to shrink.
Tokyo rose 0.61 percent by the break, Hong Kong climbed 0.93 percent, Sydney added 0.46 percent, Shanghai was 0.60 percent higher and Seoul advanced 0.57 percent.
Buying sentiment has been lifted since the ECB said it would buy unlimited amounts of debt from under-pressure eurozone nations to keep their borrowing costs down, followed a week later by the Fed move to buy huge amounts of US bonds.
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) said Wednesday it would extend its own asset-purchasing scheme.
"We are in the aftermath of some pretty big announcements, with moves by the European Central Bank and the (Fed), and investors are still digesting that, while economic data is still on the soft side," said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy and chief economist at AMP Capital in Sydney.
While the banks' moves provided hope to the markets, reality hit home with a string of weak data, including an HSBC survey that found China's manufacturing activity contracted for an 11th straight month in September.
Wall Street provided an anaemic lead following a batch of numbers including disappointing jobless claims figures.
The Dow rose 0.14 percent, the S&P 500 was flat and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.21 percent.
On currency markets the euro picked up slightly after retreating from multi-month highs fuelled by the BoJ announcement.