HONG KONG: Asian markets rose on Friday on strong indications that enough private investors had signed up to a critical writedown on their Greek debt, paving the way for a second bailout for Athens.
The debt swap plan's success means Greece will be able to avoid a devastating default that many had feared could send ripples around the globe.
And in China data showing inflation has eased further provided some support to sentiment, although the sharpness of the fall tempered excitement amid lingering fears over a slowdown in the mainland economy.
Tokyo rose 1.54 percent by the break, Hong Kong was 0.30 percent higher, Sydney added 0.50 percent, Seoul gained 0.31 percent and Shanghai was 0.22 percent up.
Athens looked to have passed the crucial debt swap test by Thursday evening's deadline, when bondholders had to say whether they were willing to accept losses of more than 50 percent on their investments to ease the nation's debt burden.
A government source said final participation was likely to be "around 90 percent", easily beating the minimum 75 percent needed in order for the plan to work and qualify Greece for a much needed rescue package.
The writedown will see almost a third slashed from the country's 350 billion euro debt mountain.
The news lifted US markets. On Wall Street the Dow was up 0.54 percent, the broad-based S&P 500 added 0.98 percent and the Nasdaq gained 1.18 percent.
On currency markets the euro jumped more than a cent against the dollar and also jumped against the yen in New York as risk sentiment was put back on track.
In early Asian trade the single currency held on to its gains, buying $1.3267 and 108.60 yen, compared with $1.3274 and 108.28 yen in New York late Thursday. The dollar was at 81.84 yen, compared with 81.56 yen.
The "market mood remains ebullient, buoyed by Greece's avoidance of a hard default", Stewart Hall, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note.
Eyes will now turn to the United States, where the Department of Labor is due to release closely watched non-farm jobs figures for an idea of the strength of the world's biggest economy.
A run of strong figures in recent months has fuelled hopes that the recovery is gaining traction.
In China official data showed inflation slowed in February to 3.2 percent the lowest since June 2010.
The figure was well down from January's 4.5 percent, when spending before the Chinese New Year holiday drove up prices but continues a downward trend since inflation hit a three-year high of 6.5 percent in July.
"The CPI data came in below market expectations, and that is certainly contributing to investors' growing expectations of further monetary loosening," Dongxing Securities analyst Shen Gang told Dow Jones Newswires.
Oil was mixed, with New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in April, up four cents to $106.62 per barrel while Brent North Sea crude for April was down four cents at $125.40.
Gold was at $1,705.80 an ounce at 0345 GMT, compared with $1,701.90 late Wednesday.
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