Asian shares rebound

[TOKYO] Asian shares rebounded from one-month lows on Friday, helped by signs global bond markets are stabilising after a big selloff, though investors were on guard ahead of US jobs data and crunch talks between Greece and its creditors at the weekend.

Sterling jumped more than one per cent against other major currencies after British Prime Minister David Cameron appeared set to govern Britain, showing surprising strength in a tightly-contested election.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4 per cent, recovering from a one-month low hit earlier. Japan's Nikkei ticked up 0.4 per cent from one-month low hit on Thursday.

Investors breathed a sigh of relief after the global bond market rout since late April appeared to have run its course for now. "Yields have risen to levels that would attract investors,"said Chotaro Morita, head of Japan rates strategy at SMBC Nikko Securities.

China's mainland stock indexes trimmed gains to be up 0.9 per cent after news China's exports contracted 6.4 per cent in April from a year ago, sharply missing expectations for a 2.4 per cent gain and fuelling fears about the health of the cooling Chinese economy. The Chinese yuan was flat at 6.2076 against the dollar.

Many investors now look to the US employment report due later on Friday, with traders expecting nonfarm payrolls to recover to gains of 224,000 in April from a shockingly low 126,000 in March.

REUTERS