2013.04.1902:32:18UTC+00Taipei, Shanghai lead Asia stock advances

Most Asian markets boost Friday as bargain purchasers accumulated beaten-down stocks ahead of the weekend, taking a positive outlook on the rebound in commodity prices despite another day of losses on Wall Street.

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average jumped 0.6%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 acquired a 0.2% increase, South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.3%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index bounced back 0.8% after a five-day losing streak.

China’s Shanghai Composite move forward by 1.1%, while the Taiex climbed 1.6% in Taipei, where heavyweight Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. got a boost from upbeat forecasts.

The increase came as investors looked past another day of declines on Wall Street overnight, with U.S. equity index futures pointing to gains on Friday.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures surged 66 points, or 0.5%, to 14,476, S&P 500 futures were up 0.5%, while Nasdaq 100 futures bolstered 0.6% in the wake of post-earnings gains for shares of Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. in U.S. after-hours trade.

“If selling on the broader indices does not accelerate lower from current levels ... we can expect higher levels into next week. Any modest decline in U.S. equity markets will likely be used as a buying opportunity while the Federal Reserve continues to support the market with liquidity,” said Rivkin Securities analyst Tim Radford.

Mainland Chinese shares clinched advancements across most sectors and were on track for a weekly increase, signaling the market had overcome the hit to sentiment from a disappointing set of data reported on Monday, including first-quarter economic progress.

Brokerage firms and commodity shares were leading the advance, with Haitong Securities Co. improving 3.3%, Citic Securities Co. acquiring 3.1%, and Jiangxi Copper Co. moving 2.1% higher.

In Shenzhen, shares of Yunnan Tin Co. leapt 1.9%, and Changjiang Securities Co. soared 1.6%.

The Hong Kong-listed shares of Haitong Securities escalates 4.3%, Citic Securities ascended 4.6%, and Jiangxi Copper traded 2.3% greater.

Shares of Lenovo Group Ltd. skip 4.2% following reports that the Hong Kong-listed computer maker was in talks to buy International Business Machines Corp.’s servers business.

Shares of TSMC climbed 6.6% in Taipei trading after the company issued an upbeat guidance for the second quarter and raised its capital expenditure plan for this year.

The resource sector was buoyed after a generally higher finish for commodities overnight, providing some relief to stocks that had been beaten down earlier in the week.

In Sydney, mining giants BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Ltd. surged 2.6% and 4.1%, respectively.

Korea Zinc Co. bounced 4.9% in Seoul, and Pacific Metals Co. boosted 1.5% in Tokyo.

Shares of Sharp Corp. improved 3.9% after the Nikkei business daily reported the company will supply Samsung Electronics Co. with energy-saving liquid-crystal-display or LCD panels for notebook computers.