HONG KONG - Asian markets climbed Thursday, boosted by bargain hunting and a positive lead from Wall Street that came despite a worse-than-expected first quarter contraction in the US economy.
Tokyo rose 0.27%, or 41.88 points to 15,308.49, Sydney jumped 1.15%, or 62.29 points, to 5464.3 and Seoul added 0.67%, or 13.28 points, at 1,995.05.
Shanghai ended 0.65%, or 13.18 points, higher at 2,038.68 and Hong Kong rallied 1.45%, or 331.13 points, to 23,197.83.
Taipei advanced 0.85%, or 78.78 points, to 9,320.94 and Manila climbed 0.84%, or 57.50 points, to close at 6,892.18.
With little to drive business, investors picked up cheap stocks after Wednesday's sell-off, with sentiment buoyed by a batch of healthy data this week, including Chinese manufacturing and US homes sales and consumer confidence.
In the United States, the Commerce Department said the world's number one economy shrunk a steep 2.9% in the first three months of 2014, sharply worse than the previous estimate of 1.0 percent.
The figure is the worst since the height of the global financial crisis five years ago. But it was widely brushed off by economists, who described it as a blip caused by the severe winter at the start of the year which hammered, among other things, jobs growth and retail sales.
Most expect a strong rebound over the rest of the year.
On Wall Street, the Dow added 0.29% and the S&P 500 rose 0.49%, while the Nasdaq advanced 0.68%.
But while the US growth news had no impact on stocks, the dollar came under pressure, with analysts saying it could have a bearing on when the Federal Reserve decides to hike interest rates.