Stocks in Asia were mostly higher on Thursday while the Nikkei snapped a four-day losing streak as the weaker yen boosted interest in key exporters.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 closed up 77 points at 8,824 in Tokyo while the Hang Seng advanced 19 points at 20,907 in Hong Kong. Stock markets on mainland China are closed for the Golden Week holiday and re-open next Monday.

Initial gains were prompted by a positive close on Wall Street after the widely watched presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Republican leader Mitt Romney.

Car stocks were in favour with shares of Toyota Motor up 3%. Honda Motor added 3.1% while Nissan Motor pushed 5.1% ahead as the dollar traded at ¥78.56 following an upturn in US private-sector hiring and services sector activity.

Among the losers, shares of Canon fell 2.3% after its client Hewlett-Packard warned of a surprise slide in 2013 earnings.

Nikon Corp also came under pressure, down 3.5%, after the Nikkei business daily said half-year profit at the firm would plunge over 40% amid sluggish sales.

Stocks in Hong Kong managed modest gains with heavyweight HSBC providing some of the momentum. The bank's shares rose almost 2% after the lender confirmed that its core tier 1 ratio was above levels required by the European Banking Authority (EBA).

Otherwise oil stocks fell out of favour as crude oil futures tumbled. PetroChina and Cnooc were among the day's decliners.


CJ

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