Upbeat U.S. technology earnings lifted shares in electronics companies in Asia this week.
Japanese tech stocks advanced Friday, led by computer makers Fujitsu and NEC, after U.S. computer giant IBM reported healthy quarterly earnings.
The Nikkei index rose 1.8 percent Friday to 10,857. But the index is down nearly one percent for the week on continued worries of a stronger yen hurting Japanese exports.
Korea's Samsung Electronics jumped nearly two percent Friday after the company recorded a 24 percent rise in quarterly net income. The Kospi index is at 847, gaining a third of a percent. It is up a quarter of a percent for the week.
In Singapore, electronics stocks such as Venture and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing were also trading higher.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost more than half a percent Friday. It closed at 13,165, losing one and half a percent for the week.
But some analysts say the Hang Seng is in for more gains in the coming months. Jim Walker, chief economist with the Hong Kong investment bank CLSA predicts an investment boom in the territory this year following signs that years of deflation are ending.
"When that happens, people start investing again, start buying property," he said. "And when confidence returns to an economy which gets so much liquidity as Hong Kong, then you can expect an extremely strong cyclical rebound. And that's what's going to happen this year."
Taiwan's main index closed Friday at 6,269, up three-quarters of a percent from last week. The market will be closed next week for the Lunar New Year holidays and will reopen on January 26.