BANGKOK ? Asian stock markets rose Friday, driven higher by a successful bond issue in Europe that eased worries over the continent's sovereign debt crisis.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index gained 1 percent to 8,471.55 and South Korea's Kospi index added 0.6 percent at 1,875.68. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.4 percent to 19,163.56 and Australia's S&P ASX 200 was 0.3 percent higher at 4,194.40.
Raw materials and industrial companies posted solid gains, following their U.S. counterparts higher. Japanese heavy equipment maker Komatsu Ltd. jumped 3.8 percent and Hitachi Construction Machinery gained 3.4 percent.
Energy Resources of Australia soared 7.2 percent and Paladin Energy Ltd., an Australian uranium miner, gained 3.4 percent.
On Wall Street, stocks ended higher after oil prices dropped below $100 per barrel for the first time this year. Oil fell on rumors that Europe will delay an embargo on Iran. Crude plunged $2 a barrel in just eight minutes, ending at $99.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.2 percent to end at 12,471.02. The S&P 500 finished up 0.2 percent at 1,295.50. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.5 percent to 2,724.70.
Strong bond auctions in Italy and Spain also pushed stocks higher. Italy was able to sell one-year bonds at a rate of just 2.735 percent, less than half the 5.95 percent rate it had to pay last month. Spain was able to raise double the amount of money it had sought to raise in its own bond sale as demand for its debt was strong.
Investors have been worried that Italy and Spain might get dragged into the region's debt crisis. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have been forced to get relief from their lenders after their borrowing costs spiked to levels the countries could no longer afford.
Benchmark oil for February delivery rose 24 cents to $99.34 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract tumbled $2 to finish at $99.10 per barrel in New York on Thursday.
In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.2822 from $1.2827 late Thursday in New York. The euro hit a 16-month low of $1.2661 on Wednesday after Germany predicted that its economy shrank in the last three months of last year.
The dollar rose to 76.80 yen from 76.76 yen.
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