Asian shares gain, but wariness ahead of G20

Asian shares rose on Friday as this week's sharp losses were seen as excessive, but a rally in oil fizzled and the yen edged up as signals flashed 'danger' for the global economy before the G20 meeting this weekend.
European shares were set to pick up the baton from Asia with Britain's FTSE 100 seen opening up as much as 3.9 percent and key indexes in Germany and France seen up more than 4 percent each.
But in a sign of how caution still remained, Asian shares pared earlier stronger gains, while U.S. Treasuries edged up amid doubts about the sustainability of the latest jump in equities.
"It's very underwhelming today," said Peter Wright, dealer at Burrell & Co in Australia.
"Ordinarily you might have expected the market to potentially be up the similar magnitude it was down yesterday, but this shows just how rattled investors are, which is very rattled."
The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 1.6 percent at 0655 GMT, marking its first gain in four sessions but paring gains earlier of as much as 3.2 percent.
Still, the index was down about 8 percent for the week as of late trade, and headed for its first weekly loss in three.
The gains came despite bleak signals on the global economy, which provide a bad omen for export-dependent Asia. Leaders of the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging nations will gather in Washington late on Friday to discuss the economic crisis.
Data on Thursday showed U.S. workers drawing initial jobless benefits hit a 25-year high this month, while imports to the world's biggest economy suffered a record fall in September.
Elsewhere, Germany fell into recession in the third quarter, data on Thursday showed, while the euro zone is set to release third-quarter economic growth numbers later on Friday that are expected to show it too is in recession.
"In the overall market tone, the anxiety of the financial market turmoil has not disappeared. So market demand for the dollar and the yen driven by flight-to-safety will likely remain," said Yousuke Hosokawa, senior manager at Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking in Japan.
Still, with share prices falling in the past three sessions, investors looked for beaten-up stocks.
Japan's Nikkei was among the leading gainers in the region with a 2.7 percent advance, though it had earlier risen as much as 5.5 percent.
Hong Kong's key index and Shanghai gained more than 3 percent each. Markets in Australia and Singapore gained more than 1 percent each, and Taiwan edged up 0.3 percent.
But South Korea .KS11 was flat, while India's BSE index dropped 2 percent.