Investing.com - Asian shares gained on Friday taking a cue from Wall Street and positive regional data from Japan and China.
The Nikkei 225 rose 1.06%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.27%. In Greater China, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.21% and the Hang Seng index picked up 0.87%.
China's trade balance hit $40.21 billion in November, official data on Friday showed, wider than the $35 billion expected while imports jumped 17.7%, surpassing an 11.3% gain seen and exports rose 12.3%, better than the 5.0% gain expected.
Earlier, Japan reported third quarter GDP jumped 0.6%, compared with a 0.4% gain expected on quarter and at a 2.5% pace, compared with a 1.5% rise seen on year. As well, average cash earnings rose 0.6%, missing the 0.8% gain seen on year.
The markets are looking aehad to US nonfarm payrolls later in the day.
Overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 70.57 points to close at 24,211.48 and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.5% to finish at 6,812.84, as shares of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) rose.