Asian shares pushed higher on Friday after U.S. President Joe Biden signed a $1.9trillion stimulus bill into law, and as a retreat in bond yields overnight eased global concerns about rising inflation.
Biden signed the stimulus legislation ahead of a televised address in which he pledged aggressive action to speed vaccinations and move the country closer to normality by July 4.
The signing of the American Rescue Plan provided a further boost to market sentiment after the European Central Bank said it was ready to accelerate money-printing to keep a lid on borrowing costs, using its 1.85 trillion euro Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP) more generously over the coming months to stop any unwarranted rise in debt financing costs.
That and a better-than-expected U.S. government bond auction could support a rally in tech stocks and a rotation between growth and value stocks in the next few weeks, said Cliff Zhao, chief strategist at China Construction Bank International in Hong Kong.
"But in the second quarter the market still (will be) very volatile, and especially when we look at the U.S. dollar it's much stronger than expectations around the end of last year. SoI think the strong U.S. dollar may weigh on some liquidity conditions in the emerging markets," he said.
MSCI's broadest gauge index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.45% on Friday morning, supported by tech gains.
Seoul's KOSPI added 1.12%, Taiwan shares were up 0.21% and Australia's ASX 200 gained 0.85%.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.99%, but China's blue-chip CSI300 index lost 0.43% as that country's high-valuation tech and consumer firms dragged.