According to Yonhap, RTHK and the Hong Kong Economic Times, Asian equities opened broadly higher on Friday after Wall Street set fresh records overnight and cooler US wholesale inflation eased rate-tightening fears, though Hong Kong bucked the regional advance.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 opened sharply higher, adding about 940 points, or 1.38%, to around 69,249 in early trade, extending Thursday's record run as chip-related shares tracked their US peers. Among semiconductor names, Sony rose 4.46% and Advantest gained 4.01%, while Tokyo Electron eased 0.34% (Google Finance, as of 09:38 UTC+8).

Seoul's KOSPI opened 182.33 points, or 2.7%, higher at 6,995.67 and pushed above the 7,000 mark for the first time in 15 sessions, led by chipmakers. SK Hynix advanced 3.39%, while Samsung Electronics slipped 0.37% (Google Finance, as of 09:38 UTC+8).

Hong Kong stocks opened lower, with the Hang Seng Index down 177 points, or 0.70%, at 25,219.15, and the Hang Seng Tech Index off 28 points, or 0.6%, at 4,763. JD.com sank more than 6% after its results, while SMIC bucked the trend to rise nearly 5% following a jump in quarterly profit. Tencent fell 1.13%, Alibaba dropped 1.31% and Meituan lost 1.37% (Google Finance, as of 09:38 UTC+8).

Taiwan's TAIEX opened up 82.33 points at 46,103.81 and rose more than 300 points in early trade, buoyed by memory-chip names, after MSCI raised Taiwan's weighting across three major indexes. TSMC opened around flat at NT$2,435, easing 0.62% (Google Finance, as of 09:38 UTC+8).

In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite Index traded near 3,930.02, up about 0.08% from Thursday's close, while the Shenzhen Component Index rose 0.32% to 14,335.41 and the CSI 300 gained 0.19% to 4,672.98 (as of 09:38 UTC+8).