Asian stock markets gained solidly on Friday, on overnight Wall Street cues, easing global oil prices, and as traders embraced tech issues.
Brent oil futures declined 1.4% to $103.32 a barrel during Asian market hours.
Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo finished in the green, as did most other regional exchanges. Seoul's semiconductor-laden KOSPI index rose 2.7% on the day.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 opened higher and rose to the close, finishing up 1.4% after the Bank of Japan raised its key policy rate to 1.25% from 1.00%, but on a mixed vote that indicated the central bank may be tempered going forward.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 882.70 to 65,018.95, although losing issues outnumbered gainers 161 to 62, as optimism was largely limited to tech shares.
Leading the upside was memory chip maker Kioxia, up 9.4%, while Lasertec, which manufactures equipment used to find defects in semiconductors, gained 8.7%. Food company Nisshin Seifun declined 4.1%.
In economic news, Japan's core consumer price index, which excludes fresh food but includes energy, increased 1.7% on the year in August, after a 1.8% rise in July, below the Bank of Japan's 2% annual inflation target.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index opened higher and held ground on easing oil prices and strength in tech and property shares.
The broad gauge Hang Seng rose 146.49 to 24,750.78, as gaining issues outnumbered losers 58 to 31. The Hang Seng TECH Index gained 2.2% on the day, while the Mainland Properties Index rose 1.3%.
Leading the upside was computer- and chip-maker Lenovo, gaining 9.5%, while telecom service China Unicom declined 2.1%.
On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.9% to 3,911.87.
On the other regional exchanges, the Taiwan TWSE rose 0.3%; the Australian ASX 200 was flat; the Singapore Straits Times Index fell 0.1%, and the Thai Set advanced 0.1%. In late trading in Mumbai, the Sensex was up 0.3%.
The MSCI All Country Asia Pacific Index rose 0.6% on the day.