Investing.com - Asian shares gained on Friday on a surprise jump in Japan core machinery figures for January and weekend news in China on plans for stocks bought last year to shore up the market.
The Nikkei 225 rose 1.81%, while the Shanghai Composite gained 2.58% and the S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.37%.
At the weekend, China's stock market regulator said there were no immediate plans to sell shares bought last summer during efforts to stabilize the market.
The yuan rose against the dollar Monday, shrugging off a weaker fixing by the People's Bank of China, following the euro higher after the European currency gained on Friday.
The PBOC set the fixing at 6.4913 compared with Friday's 6.4905 parity which was the highest since Dec 30.
In Japan, core machinery orders for January spiked 15%, well above the 3.0% gain seen month-on-month and a year-on-year gain of 8.4%, far outpacing a decline of 3.6% expected.
Offsetting the gain, official data released over the weekend showed that China's factory output in the first two months of the year slowed to the weakest level since November 2008, adding to the view that the economy remains in the midst of an ongoing slowdown which will require Beijing to roll out more support in coming months.
Industrial production rose by an annualized rate of 5.4% in January, below expectations for a 5.6% increase and slowing from a gain of 5.9% in the preceding month, the General Administration of Customs said on Saturday.
Last week, U.S. stocks rose broadly on Friday closing higher for their fourth consecutive week, as crude soared to its highest level on the calendar year and investors felt the ripple effects from the European Central Bank's decision to implement a wide range of easing measures in order to stimulate growth throughout the zone.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 218.18 or 1.28% to 17,213.31, closing at near session-highs. At one point on Friday, the Dow reached its highest level since January 6.
The NASDAQ Composite index gained 86.31 or 1.85% to 4,748.47, while the S&P 500 Composite index added 32.62 or 1.64% to 2,022.19. On the S&P 500, all 10 sectors closed in the green, as stocks in the Energy, Financials and Health Care industries led. In total, seven sectors closed at least 1% or higher in Friday's session. For the week, the S&P 500 rose by more than 1%.