The Japanese stock market climbed into positive territory, after opening lower on Friday led by a sharp decline in the shares of market heavyweight Fast Retailing. Exporters are trading mixed.
In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is up 82.80 points or 0.42 percent to 19,938.30, after touching a low of 19,720.15 in early trades.
Market heavyweight and Uniqlo chain operator Fast Retailing reported higher sales and profit for the nine months ended May 31, but forecast sales to be weak in the fourth quarter. The company's shares are declining more than 6 percent.
Among the major exporters, Sony Corp. (SNE) is adding almost 1 percent and Sharp is advancing 2 percent, while Panasonic is down 0.4 percent and Toshiba is declining almost 1 percent.
In the tech sector, Casio Computer is higher by almost 4 percent and Kyocera is adding 0.8 percent, while Fanuc is down 0.4 percent.
Among auto stocks, Toyota (TM) is edging down 0.03 percent, while Suzuki is adding almost 2 percent, Honda is up 0.7 percent and Mazda is higher by 0.6 percent.
Honda is recalling another 4.5 million cars over issues relating to airbags manufactured by Takata Corp.
In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MTU) and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are adding more than 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is up 0.4 percent.
Among the other major gainers, Kyowa Hakko Kirin is gaining almost 7 percent, while West Japan Railway and Daiichi Sankyo are up 4 percent each.
Meanwhile, Isetan Mitsukoshi is declining almost 4 percent and Sumco Corp. is losing more than 3 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the upper 121 yen range on Friday, up from the lower 121 range at close on Thursday in Tokyo.
On the economic front, the Bank of Japan said that an index monitoring corporate service prices in Japan was down 0.2 percent on month in June. That missed forecasts for an increase of 0.1 percent, following the downwardly revised 0.2 percent increase in May.
On a yearly basis, prices dipped 2.4 percent - also shy of expectations for a fall of 2.2 percent - which would have been unchanged from the previous month following a downward revision from -2.1 percent.
Japan will also see June figures for its consumer confidence index later in the day.
On Wall Street, stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday, partly in reaction to a substantial rebound by Chinese stocks and on optimism about a deal between Greece and its creditors. However, the positive sentiment was partly offset by news that the International Monetary Fund lowered its forecast for global economic growth in 2015.
The Dow crept up 33.20 points or 0.2 percent to 17,548.62, the Nasdaq rose 12.64 points or 0.3 percent to 4,922.40 and the S&P 500 edged up 4.63 points or 0.2 percent to 2,051.31.
The major European markets also showed strong moves to the upside on Thursday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index shot up by 1.4 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index soared by 2.3 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.
U.S. crude oil snapped a five-day loss to end sharply higher on Thursday, as Chinese equity markets rebounded while easing concerns of a slowdown in the global economy.
Crude Oil futures for August delivery, the most actively traded contract, jumped $1.13 or 2.2 percent to settle at $52.78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday.
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