Japan's Nikkei average closed above 10,000 on Friday for the first time in a week, with exporters climbing on a slightly weaker yen, while Fast Retailing gained after forecasting a record profit for this business year.
Resource-related stocks climbed after gold hit an all-time high, while Nintendo Co jumped nearly 7 percent after Citigroup Global Markets Japan raised its rating to "buy" from "hold".
"The recent market focus in Japan has been on the yen, and as the dollar/yen traded around 89.20 yen, that helped the market continue its upward trend for now," said Takahiko Murai, general manager of equities at Nozomi Securities.
The yen slipped to around 89.20 yen to the dollar, though that still compares with exchange rate assumptions by many Japanese exporters of around 90-95 yen for the business year to March. Investors fret about a stronger yen as it curbs exporters' profits when they are repatriated.
In moderate trade, the benchmark Nikkei gained 1.9 percent or 183.92 points to 10,016.39, its highest finish since Sept. 30. The index rose 2.9 percent on the week, following a 5.2 percent drop posted the previous week.
The broader Topix climbed 1.2 percent to 897.83.
Gains in Japanese stocks were further helped by a jump in Chinese stocks as the market played catch-up with a strong global rally during an eight-day national holiday in China that lasted until Thursday.
The Japanese market will be closed on Monday for a national holiday.
U.S. stocks edged up on Thursday as a surprising quarterly profit by Alcoa Inc got third-quarter earnings off to a strong start, though market players in Tokyo said the Alcoa news had been factored in during the previous day's trade in Japan.
The market reacted little to news on Japanese machinery orders, which rose less than expected in August as insecurity about the economy dampened any recovery in capital spending.
RESOURCE STOCKS CLIMB
Gold inched down on Friday but remained near $1,050 per ounce after rising to an all-time high for a third straight day in the previous session, lifted by the dollar's weakness.
Metal stocks climbed, with Sumitomo Metal Mining gaining 2.2 percent to 1,564 yen. Mitsubishi Materials Corp advanced 1.5 percent to 264 yen and Dowa Holdings jumped 4.7 percent to 580 yen.
"Oil money and other investors appear to have been buying resource-related sectors in the past few days, encouraged by climbs in international commodity markets," said Hiroaki Kuramochi, chief equity marketing officer at Tokai Tokyo Securities.
Nintendo climbed 6.8 percent to 23,820 yen.
Fast Retailing climbed 2 percent to 13,200 yen to become one of the top positive contributors to the Nikkei 225.
The retailer forecast a 10.5 percent rise in yearly operating profit as its Uniqlo casual clothing chain draws cost-conscious consumers away from rivals and it aggressively opens new stores in China.
It forecast a record operating profit of 120 billion yen ($1.4 billion) for the year to August 2010, in line with market expectations.
Canon Inc advanced 1.8 percent to 3,450 yen and Kyocera Corp gained 2.7 percent to 7,990 yen. Honda Motor Co rose 2.8 percent to 2,750 yen.
Tokyo Electron Ltd shot up 5 percent to 5,710 yen. It said after the close that orders for its tools to make semiconductors, flat panel displays and solar panels rose 94 percent in July-September from the previous quarter to about 97 billion yen ($1.09 billion).
Among other notable stocks, Promise Co surged 13.3 percent to 690 yen after the consumer lender said it plans to appoint Vice President Ken Kubo as president.
The appointment of Kubo, a former executive at Promise's top shareholder Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, the banking arm of SMFG, is expected to strengthen Promise's ties to the bank.
Yahoo Japan jumped 7.6 percent to 29,870 yen after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating of the Internet company to "overweight" from "equal" and raised its target price to 42,000 yen.
Some 2.1 billion shares changed hands on the Tokyo exchange's first section, above last week's daily average of 1.9 billion.
Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones by nearly 2 to 1.
