Asia close: Stocks mostly higher, analysts bullish

Stocks markets across Asia advanced at the end of the week, although gains were restrained despite the solid performance put in overnight by Wall Street.

Limiting the advance, investors were waiting on the US central bank's policy meeting during the following week, although some analysts sounded a bullish note.

"Surely Asian investors are getting giddy after local shares assumed the pole position for the fifth consecutive day," said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.

"Still, China's travel mania is in full swing sweeping the globe, and notably, the fear of Covid is heading for the exit stage left. For the first time in a long time, investors of many stripes are shifting copious amounts of risk to Asia -- a switch has been thrown, and capital is on the move, so the lights are unlikely to dim soon."

The Nikkei-225 edged up 0.07% to 27,382.56, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.54% to 22,688.90 and the South Korean Kospi advanced 0.62% to 2,484.02.

Dragging on Japanese stocks, core consumer prices in Tokyo were reported as up by 4.3% year-on-year in January, versus economists' forecasts for an increase of 4.2%.

That served to push the US dollar down against the yen to 129.80.

The dollar however added 0.25% against China's yuan to reach 6.7927.

India's Sensex was the exception to the advance in equities across the region, falling by 1.37% to 59,382.14.

Chinese and Taiwanese stock markets remained closed on Friday for the Lunar New Year holiday.