US rally propels Asia stocks higher

Tokyo's Nikkei index closed up 0.50 per cent or 49.65 points at 10,079.76, while Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.19 per cent, or 8.7 points, to end at 4,593.4.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.13 per cent, or 30.82 points, to 23,054.68, although trade volumes were modest, while Shanghai's Composite Index jumped 1.34 per cent, or 38.32 points, to 2,898.26.

Seoul's Kospi index edged up 0.09 per cent, or 1.70 points, to end at 1,927.68 despite Tuesday's outbreak of hostilities between North and South Korea.

Contributing to Asia's rebound were Japanese exporters such as Sony and Toyota, which jumped on sunnier US economic data and a rise in the dollar overnight, as well as Australian and Chinese resource stocks -- notably Chinese energy giants CNOOC and PetroChina.

"The firming data in the US and perhaps the eurozone give reason to be more upbeat about global risk appetite. However, the situation in European financial markets remains a heavy weight on global risk appetite," Greg Gibbs, currency strategist at RBS in Sydney, told Dow Jones Newswires.

However Chinese investors remained wary of an expected interest hike to cool the mainland economy, particularly if inflation continues to surge.

"Investors are still cautious ahead of the release of November's inflation figure. It's hard to say now, as vegetable prices are falling but other consumer prices are still rising," said Zhang Zhuo, an analyst at Minsheng Securities, in Shanghai.

Wall Street soared Wednesday as traders set aside global concerns to focus on US economic data that offered a broadly positive picture ahead of the all-important holiday shopping season.

US unemployment claims fell a more-than-expected 34,000 last week from the previous week to 407,000, continuing a stop-start downward trend.

Another report showed US consumers earned and spent more in October, raising expectations ahead of the holiday shopping season.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 1.37 percent, the broader S&P 500 index gained 1.49 percent, while the tech-rich Nasdaq jumped 1.93 percent.

The euro stayed under pressure against other currencies in Asia as investors remained wary about eurozone debt problems.

The euro fell back to $1.3313 in Tokyo midday trade from $1.3335 in New York late Wednesday, and to 111.16 yen from 111.32 yen.

The dollar slipped slightly to 83.50 yen from 83.53 yen.

Oil prices hovered after Wednesday's "holiday rally" rounded off the last American working day before Thanksgiving.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for January, slipped 13 cents to $83.73 a barrel in the afternoon. Brent North Sea crude for delivery in January fell 27 cents to $85.57 a barrel in London.

-- Gold closed at $1,370.00-1,371.00 an ounce in Hong Kong, down from Wednesday's close of $1,375.50-1,376.50.

In other markets:

-- Taipei rose 0.64 per cent, or 52.94 points, to 8,349.99.

UMC, maker of integrated circuit wafers, rose 2.39 per cent to 15.0 Taiwan dollars, while rival TSMC was up 1.58 per cent at 64.4.

-- Manila fell 0.65 per cent, or 27.05 points, to 4,097.49.

Aboitiz Power fell 0.59 per cent to 33.75 pesos, while newly listed miner Nickel Asia dropped 3.33 per cent to 16.26.

Cebu Air lost 0.40 percent to 125 pesos.

-- Wellington fell 0.14 per cent, or 4.55 points, to 3,264.67.

Telecom shed 1.8 per cent to 2.15 New Zealand dollars and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 2.0 per cent at 2.89.

-- Jakarta rose 1.18 per cent, or 43.23 points, to 3,702.01.

-- Kuala Lumpur rose 0.53 percent, or 7.95 points, to 1,496.49.

Property developer Sunway City rose 2.5 per cent to 4.60 ringgit, gaming giant Genting climbed 2.8 per cent to 10.40, but power generation firm YTL Power slid 1.6 per cent to 2.50.

-- Singapore rose 0.71 per cent, or 22.22 points, to 3,159.23.

Keppel Corp gained 2.08 per cent to 10.78 and Wilmar International was up 0.83 per cent at 6.08.