Asian shares rally as China drops circuit breaker, firms yuan setting

Asian shares rebounded on Friday, led by strong gains for battered Chinese stocks after China suspended its market circuit breaker system and set a firmer midpoint rate for yuan trading for the first time in nine days, Reuters reported.

The improved sentiment looks unlikely to spill over into Europe, however, with financial spreadbetters expecting Britain's FTSE 100 to open flat, and Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 to start the day 0.5 percent lower.

Shares in Asia were still on track for their biggest weekly fall in more than four months, but Friday's advances seemed to reduce some of the fears that have hit global markets.

The CSI300 index of major Shanghai and Shenzhen stocks was up 2.7 percent and the Shanghai Composite climbed 2.6 percent.

Japan's Nikkei surrendered earlier gains to end the day down 0.4 percent at its lowest closing price since Sept. 30. That extended losses for the week to 7 percent, the biggest weekly decline in four months.

Wall Street also had a gloomy session, with the S&P 500 losing 2.4 percent on Thursday, with 40 percent of the stocks in the benchmark trading 20 percent or more off of their highs, the definition of a bear market.

The Chinese moves offered a leg up to oil futures, with both Brent crude and U.S. oil rallying more than 2 percent.

Brent gained 2.2 percent to $34.49 after touching $32.16 on Thursday, the lowest since April 2004. The gains narrowed losses for the week to 7.5 percent.

West Texas Crude advanced 2.1 percent to $33.98, on track for a weekly loss of 8.3 percent.

The 10-year U.S. Treasuries' yield fell to a 2 1/2-month low of 2.119 percent on Thursday and last stood at 2.1720 percent.

Gold eased back to $1,103.45 after earlier rising to $1,112 , the highest since Nov. 4. That brought gains for this year to 4 percent.