Japanese stocks rallied on Thursday as investors snapped up shares of big exporters after the dollar hit two-week highs against the yen, but markets elsewhere in Asia were more subdued ahead of the influential US non-farm payrolls report.
Copper climbed 1 per cent to a high of $9,654.25 a tonne, bringing the all-time high of $9,754 struck on Tuesday back in sight, after an ADP report on Wednesday showed a record 297,000 US private sector jobs were created in December.
It was the clearest signal in months that a recovery in the world's biggest economy was shifting up a gear and prompted analysts to raise their forecasts for the closely watched non-farm payrolls data due on Friday.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 1.4 per cent and closed above the psychologically important barrier of 10,500 at 10,530. It ended at its best level since May 2010.
Major exporters including Canon Inc and Toyota Motors climbed more than 1 per cent.
South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.2 per cent, China's Shanghai Composite index shed 0.6 per cent to close at 2,824 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, which closed the day flat, was at 23,786.
In the currency market, the dollar rose to 83.39 yen, reaching highs not seen since December 23, while the euro traded around $1.3150, after falling below $1.3200 for the first time since December 29.
US crude oil was steady in Asia, holding just below $90.50 a barrel, having hit a high of $90.84 on Wednesday in the wake of the US data. It was within striking distance of a 27-month high of $92.58 set in the first trading day of the year.
Stable crude oil prices, along with a strong dollar, saw the other major Asian indices, Singapore's benchmark the Straits Times at 3,279, and Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted at 8,883 close in the green, up 0.8% and 0.4% respectively.
The Seoul Composite, however, slipped 0.2% at 2,078.
Encouraging US jobs and employment data also buoyed the European markets, as the CAC 40, France's benchmark index, was trading 0.3% up at 3,918, while Germany's DAX gained 0.4% at 6,967 and the UK's FTSE 100 benchamrk index saw a marginal gain of 0.2% at 6,053, at 2:25 pm.
