* Trump still upbeat on deal with Beijing despite gap over
tariffs
* Oil prices hold at recent highs as OPEC+ deepens cuts
* Investors eye U.S. jobs data, Fed's policy decisions
* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
By Tomo Uetake and Hideyuki Sano
SYDNEY/TOKYO, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Asian stocks gained on
Friday as investors took heart from U.S. President Donald Trump
saying trade talks with China were "moving right along", and
U.S. oil prices sat near 2-1/2-month highs after OPEC and other
producers areed to cut output.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.5% and Japan's Nikkei .N225 added
0.3%.
Australian shares .AXJO rose 0.2% and South Korea's Kospi
.KS11 climbed 0.8%, while China's Shanghai Composite .SSEC
and Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI indexes gaining 0.1% and 0.9%,
respectively.
Trump's upbeat tone in comments on Thursday was enough to
spark buying, despite a lack of agreement between Washington and
Beijing over whether existing tariffs should be dropped as part
of a preliminary deal to end their trade war. "Many players have taken a wait-and-see attitude given a
lack of fresh trading cues ahead of U.S. paryolls data and the
Federal Reserve's policy meeting. But clearly, the mood is quite
positive," said Yasuo Sakuma, chief investment officer at Libra
Investments.
Investors were hoping that the two sides will reach a
compromise to at least avoid their worst fears - that the United
States will go ahead with its final batch of tariffs on about
$156 billion of Chinese exports.
Uncertainties over a deal have pushed some investors to the
sidelines in recent sessions, while nervousness before the
release of U.S. non-farm payrolls data later in the day could
also curb market liquidity.
Investors were also looking ahead to a Fed policy meeting on
Dec. 1-11. A Reuters poll of economists and analyts showed the
Fed would keep rates on hold at 1.50-1.75%. Oil prices retreated but hovered near recent peaks after
major oil exporting countries agreed on Thursday to cut output
by an extra 500,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of
2020, after a nearly six-hour meeting on Thursday.
Details of the agreement and how the cuts will be
distributed among producers still need to be ratified at a
meeting in Vienna of OPEC and non-OPEC nations, otherwise known
as OPEC+, on Friday.
"The cut of an extra 500,000 barrels a day was not priced
into the market, so the cut will be positive for the market if
it is carried out," said Tatsufumi Okoshi, senior commodity
economist at Nomura.
"But since OPEC countries haven't fully complied with the
existing cut, markets will probably have to wait to see how the
cut will pan out," he added.
Brent crude LCOc1 futures dipped 0.3% to $63.20 a barrel,
having struck its highest on Thursday since Nov. 28, while U.S.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 eased 0.2% to $58.31
per barrel, but was not far off Thursday's 2-1/2-month high of
$59.12.
The agreement coincided with the initial public offering
(IPO) of state oil firm Saudi Aramco, which was priced at the
top of its range, raising $25.6 billion in the world's biggest
IPO. In the currency market, the British pound soared on growing
confidence that next week's election will give the Conservative
Party the parliamentary majority it needs to deliver Brexit,
ending near-term uncertainty. Sterling spiked to a seven-month high of $1.3166 on Thursday
and last stood at $1.316 GBP=D4 , up 1.6% so far this week. It
hit 2-1/2-year highs versus the euro EURGBP= .
The euro stood at $1.1108 EUR= , near a one-month high of
$1.11165 set on Wednesday, lifted by firmer euro zone economic
data.
That helped push the dollar index =USD to a one-month low
of 97.356 on Thursday. The index last stood at 97.369.
Against the yen, the dollar traded at 108.72 yen JPY= ,
having slipped slightly the previous day.