It was largely cheerful tones that were heard from Asia's leading stock exchanges in the initial Friday trading.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 1.2 percent at lunchtime. The composite indices in Shanghai and Shenzhen also increased, by 0.8 and 2.1 percent, respectively.
In Tokyo, the situation looked somewhat gloomier. Both the Topix index and the important Nikkei 225 fluctuated around zero.
