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BANGKOK — Asian stock markets climbed Friday after the European Union offered billions of euros in funds to help recession-mired Greece avoid a massive debt default.
Oil prices hovered above $92 a barrel, while the dollar slid against the euro and the yen.
Japan's Nikkei 225 was 1 percent higher at 9,694.44, with companies heavily dependent on exports rising as concerns eased over a possible default by Greece, which experts have warned could trigger financial havoc in Europe and beyond. Consumer electronics giant Sony Corp. gained 2.4 percent while camera maker Canon Inc. was 1.1 percent higher.
South Korea's Kospi rose 1.4 percent to 2,085.20. Hynix Semiconductor Inc., one of the world's leading memory chip makers, jumped 5.3 percent. Samsung Electronics Co. gained 2.3 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.4 percent at 22,068.67, with banking shares getting a boost after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao wrote a newspaper commentary indicating China is gaining control over its inflation problem. The Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., the country's biggest rural lender, rose 4 percent.
Benchmarks in Australia, Singapore, mainland China and the Philippines were also higher, while those in Taiwan, Malaysia and New Zealand slipped.
Energy companies fell after oil prices tumbled late Thursday. China National Offshore Oil Corp., known as CNOOC, was 0.8 percent down. Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. plunged 2.7 percent. Oil prices dropped after the International Energy Agency said 60 million barrels of oil would be released from reserves to make up for the loss of Libyan exports.
But airline stocks, which benefit from lower fuel costs, were sharply higher. Hong Kong-listed China Eastern Airlines Corp. soared 7.3 percent. Korean Air Lines climbed 4.2 percent higher, and Taiwan's EVA Airways Corp. added 4.1 percent.
On Thursday, the European Union pledged to help Greece access billions of euros in development funds in an attempt to boost the country's struggling economy and sweeten unpopular austerity measures needed to enable Greece to avert a default on its massive debts.
Barely one year after first being granted euros 110 billion in rescue loans, it has become clear that Greece will need tens of billions more to avoid defaulting on its massive debts in the coming years.
Some observers were surprised that some positive utterings out of the EU about Greece were all it took to lift investor sentiment.
"Volumes are not particularly great and sentiment is very jittery. I am just a bit surprised that Asia is up on basically no good news," said Tom Kaan, head of equity sales at Louis Capital Markets in Hong Kong.
The Dow finished with a loss of 0.5 percent to 12,050 on Thursday after more bleak figures on the jobs market. The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed down 0.3 percent to 1,283.50. The tech-focused Nasdaq composite index was up 0.7 percent to 2,686.75.
Since late April, reports on manufacturing, retail sales, home sales and other economic indicators have come in weaker than economists anticipated. Europe's debt problems and a slowing growth rate in China have also raised concerns about the global economy.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said problems plaguing the U.S. economy may last longer than previously thought. He also warned that the economy is weaker than previously forecast, and lowered this year's gross domestic product growth estimate to 2.9 percent from 3.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the continued rise in first-time claims for unemployment benefits indicated little improvement in the job market since May, when there was a drop in the number of new jobs created. New applications for unemployment benefits rose to 429,000 last week, from 420,000 the week before.
Benchmark oil for August delivery was up $1.17 to $92.19 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $4.39 to settle at $91.02 on Thursday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.4267 from $1.4208 on Thursday in New York. The dollar slipped to 80.47 yen from 80.58 yen.
