In Seoul, South Korea's benchmark Kospi rose 0.5 percent to 2,019.22 after the Bank of Korea left its key interest rate at 2.75 percent despite rising inflation.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.3 percent to 22,765.10. On Thursday, the benchmark closed below 23,000 for the first time this year as a fall in oil prices hurt energy shares. China's Shanghai Composite index rose 0.4 percent to 2,829.46.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 let go of the previous day's gains, dropping 0.2 percent to 4,891.10. Indexes in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia were also lower.
Japan's markets were closed for a public holiday.
Asian stocks were mixed in early trading, with South Korea's benchmark index rising after the country's central bank held interest rates steady but shares elsewhere followed a downturn on Wall Street.
Oil prices jumped to near $88 a barrel Friday in Asia as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak clung to power amid growing protests calling for his resignation. The dollar was up against the euro and the yen.
U.S. stocks finished flat Thursday, dragged down by Cisco Systems Inc. and Akamai Technologies Inc. Both issued weak earnings forecasts, raising concerns about business and technology spending.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended an eight-day winning streak, entirely a result of Cisco's 14 percent drop. Cisco, the world's largest networking equipment maker, had the largest fall of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow.
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