TOKYO, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Major Asia-Pacific stock markets managed to hold on to some of their early gains and close up Friday, encouraged by a strong performance on Wall Street.
The rally was led by Japan's 225-stock Nikkei index, which, after an impressive opening, ended Friday at 8,462, up 224 points, or 2.72 percent.
It was ditto with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index which, though losing some of its big gains earlier, managed to close at 13,543, up 321 points, or 2.43 percent.
Chinese shares also did well Friday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index adding 59 points, or 3.05 percent, to close at 1,986.
Australia's All-Ordinaries closed at 3,726, up 54 points, or 1.46 percent.
South Korea's KOSPI index was the sole exception among Friday's early winners. After a good start, the index slipped, ending nearly 0.2 percent down to 1, 088 as global recession concerns took over investor sentiment. The won again slipped against the U.S. dollar.
Markets in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan and India were headed toward a negative close.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones average shot up nearly 553 points Thursday.
