Asian share markets opened cautiously higher on Friday with Tokyo’s Nikkei steadying from its biggest one-day drop in two years as investors breathed a sigh of relief when Wall Street cut losses on an upbeat outlook from Hewlett-Packard.

The dollar recovered from two-week lows against the yen on Friday as a safety-bid for the Japanese currency ebbed after the Nikkei share average rebounded from the previous day’s 7.3-percent plunge and Wall Street regained some stability by the close.

Brent crude oil prices retraced earlier losses after falling to a three-week low on Thursday in a broader commodities selloff, riding the coattails of a late turnaround in U.S. equities to end flat.

U.S. Treasury debt prices rose on Thursday after the Treasury saw solid demand for new inflation-linked bonds, though benchmark yields held above 2 percent as traders worried about how high yields might rise whenever the U.S. Federal Reserve decides to taper its bond purchases.

                                                  LOCAL MARKETS PREVIOUS CLOSE

• * BSE index 19,674.33 (-1.93 pct)
• * NSE index 5,967.05 (-2.09 pct)
• * Rupee 55.59/60 per dollar (55.46/47)
• * 10-year bond yield 7.38 pct (7.37 pct)
• * 5-year OIS rate 6.78 pct (6.77 pct)
• * 1-year OIS rate 7.11 pct (7.10 pct)
• * Call money 7.20/7.30 pct (7.25/7.30 pct)

The Sensex is down 4.91 points at 19669.42, and the Nifty is down 0.95 points 5966.10. Indian equities could slide further in the coming weeks, warns Mohammed Apabhai, Head, Asia-Pacific Trading Strategies, Citi. He said the possibility of Nifty touching 5400 could not be ruled out.

Japanese shares were firm Friday, after the 7 percent crash in the previous session. But Apabhai said Asian markets in general could be volatile for a while, and that risk in global markets was at elevated levels.