Asian stocks rose cautiously on Friday as the dollar steadied against the yen, oil prices hovered below record highs and government bonds prices slipped, according to Reuters. Most stock markets across Asia were modestly higher, but Tokyo slipped while Sydney surged back towards the 6,000 mark, last glimpsed in February, as top miner BHP Billiton jumped, propelled by speculation of Chinese interest in the firm. European share markets also headed higher with London's FTSE 100 opening up 0.4 percent while Germany's DAX and France's CAC-40 started 0.6 percent higher. Japan's Nikkei average retreated 0.2 percent while MSCI's index of other Asian stock markets was up 1 percent by 0603 GMT, with Sydney's benchmark closing 0.8 percent higher. China's demand for commodities such as Australian ore pushed the Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index to a record high on Thursday, boosting shippers such as Japan's Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd, which gained 4 percent. Japanese government bond prices tumbled after a regular Bank of Japan repurchase operation proved unexpectedly popular, forcing many traders to dump their debt in the market. That knocked 10-year futures by as much as half a point and driving the yield up to a 7-month high. U.S. Treasuries also dipped after a set of weak economic data cast doubt on the building expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate hike later in the year. Global stocks festered at the start of this year as worries about the credit crisis and the state of the U.S. economy corroded profits and rattled banks. But Wall Street's fear has subsided and Thursday brought the CBOE Volatility Index to its lowest close since October and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to their highest closing levels since early January. A rally in U.S. tech stocks offered little comfort to South Korea's LG Display, which shed 8.3 percent after a broker warning of stagnant profitability, and other tech stocks, which pulled back from historic highs in the previous session. But Seoul's main index still managed to edge up 0.2 percent to a 2008 peak, aided by buoyant shipbuilders. "Stronger than expected earnings from Wall Street and easing worries about the credit crisis are fuelling the market's upward momentum," said Won Jong-hyuk, a market analyst at SK Securities. "The index could hit its historical high of 2,085 again by the second half of this year. But we are likely to see some volatile patches along the way," Won added. Taiwanese stocks got an extra fillip as investors savoured the prospect of improved ties with China after President-elect Ma Ying-jeou takes office next week. The main TAIEX index rose 0.4 percent to its highest close this year.
