Asian shares climbed Friday, picking up on overnight gains on Wall Street, though many markets in the region were closed for a holiday.
Shares in Japan NIK, +1.40% led the way with gains of 1%, followed by stocks in South Korea SEU, +0.39% , Taiwan Y9999, +0.56% and Shenzhen 399106, +1.29% .
Markets in Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand were closed for Good Friday.
Export-oriented tech stocks in Japan helped lift the Nikkei following overnight buying of major American tech stocks that have been battered in the past week by concerns about additional regulatory oversight.
SoftBank Group 9984, +1.84% was up 2.5%, Nintendo 7974, +0.43% gained 1.5% and Tokyo Electron 8035, +4.16% jumped 3%. Real-estate firms also logged solid gains, while Takeda Pharmaceutical 4502, +1.23% shares were up 1.3% after sliding more than 7% on Thursday following news of a possible bid for London-listed Shire SHP, +2.01% .
The biggest gainers in Korea were banks, software firms and financials. Samsung Electronics 005930, +0.37% was up 1.4% and SK Hynix 000660, +1.25% gained 3.5%. The overall market was up 0.7%.
Stocks in Shenzhen gained 0.6% while shares in Shanghai SHCOMP, +0.26% were flat as small caps in China resumed a rally Friday morning.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.1% overnight as investors sought to take advantage of lower valuations among some of the market’s most highly sought technology stocks. The Nasdaq Composite finished up 1.6%.
Still, after months of uncertainty about over trade policy, rising interest rates and tech worries, the Dow ended the quarter down 2.5%.
