BANGKOK (AP) ? Asian stock markets were higher Friday following signs of progress in debt-plagued Europe ? a successful bond sale in Italy and the naming of a new leader in Greece.
Benchmark oil rose to $98 per barrel while the dollar slipped against the euro and the yen.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.1 percent to 19,179.78 and South Korea's Kopsi added 2.7 percent to 1,862.79. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.9 percent to 4,282. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, mainland China and New Zealand also rose.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index inched up 0.4 percent to 8,536.91, a day after the index fell to a five-week closing low of 8,500.80.
Investors were calmed by news that Greece ? which is struggling to pull back from the brink of bankruptcy ? had named Lucas Papademos, a respected economist, as its new prime minister on Thursday.
Another sign of stability came after Italy was able to borrow $6.8 billion at lower interest rates than analysts expected. On Wednesday, Italy's 10-year bond yields shot up alarmingly, stoking panic in financial markets that the country was heading toward a Greece-style debt crisis.
Confidence was also boosted by the prospect of economist Mario Monti replacing Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who has been viewed as an obstacle to meaningful economic reform.
"Europe still dominates and there are still huge concerns, but Greece has a new prime minister and Italy has a new prime minister in the wings, and everyone is much more aware of the seriousness of the nature of what is confronting Europe," said Andrew Sullivan, principal sales trader at Piper Jaffray in Hong Kong.
Traders have fretted that debt troubles in Italy and Greece could blow up into a massive liquidity crisis and lead to a global financial meltdown.
The European Union warned Thursday that the grouping of 17 nations that use the euro common currency could slip back into recession next year. The European Commission predicted the euro countries will grow a barely perceptible 0.5 percent in 2012 ? much less than its earlier forecast of 1.8 percent.
Europe has already bailed out Greece, Portugal and Ireland ? but Italy is a much larger economy and its mountain of debt ? $2.6 trillion (euro1.9 trillion) ? is far too massive for the continent to cover.
Sullivan said economic data next week on the world's No. 1 economy will be closely watched.
"If any of that data comes out bad, it's probably going to put Asia into more of a downturn. If there's bad data out of the U.S. and more out of Europe, we can see Asia taking another step down," Sullivan said.
Hong Kong-based ERA Mining Machinery Ltd. shot up 19.7 percent after U.S.-based Caterpillar Inc. said it was seeking to buy the Chinese maker of mining machinery for as much as $886 million. ERA designs, builds, sells and supports equipment for underground coal mining in China.
In Seoul, technology shares jumped. LG Electronics gained 6.3 percent and Samsung Electronics was up 4.9 percent. Shares of SK Telecom Co., South Korea's top mobile carrier, rose 2.1 percent after the company offered to buy a controlling stake in Hynix Semiconductor, Yonhap News Agency reported. Hynix shares gained 1.4 percent.
Climbing oil prices sent energy shares higher. Hong Kong-listed shares of Sinopec, Asia's biggest oil refiner, rose 3 percent. China National Offshore Oil Corp. gained 2.8 percent.
In New York on Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 1 percent to close at 11,893.86. It plunged 389 points Wednesday after Italy's borrowing rates soared and talks in Greece to name a new prime minister broke down.
Positive economic data from the U.S. also boosted hopes that the world's No. 1 economy would avoid a new recession.
The Labor Department reported that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits in the U.S. fell to 390,000 last week ? the fewest since April. The data suggested layoffs are easing and that the economy grew slightly better over the summer than estimated.
The S&P 500 index gained 0.9 percent to 1,239.70. The Nasdaq rose 0.1 percent to 2,625.15.
In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.3626 from $1.3581 late Thursday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.55 yen from 77.66 yen.
Benchmark oil was up 40 cents at $98.19 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.04, or 2.1 percent, to finish at $97.78 on Thursday.
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