Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange 0.2 percent higher. The MSCI-Asia Pacific index excluding Japan is also 0.52 percent up.

US stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday, a day ahead of the key monthly jobs report, as a rebound in shares of Apple helped boost technology shares.

Asian share markets ticked up to a 16-month high on Friday following modest overnight gains in global equities as investors watched progress in U.S. budget talks and awaited U.S. Nonfarm payrolls data later in the day.

FACTORS TO WATCH

*  India’s upper house to vote on allowing FDI in multi-brand retail.
*  India cbank deputy governor Subir Gokarn at industry event in Kolkata.
*  Indian ministerial panel meeting on airwave auction.
*  Asian Venture Capital Journal’s India Forum in Mumbai.
*  Supreme Court order on Karnataka mining.
*  RBI to release forex reserves, bank loan data.

INDIAN STOCKS TO WATCH

The leader of a powerful regional party said on Thursday she would back the Indian government in a parliamentary vote on its plan to allow in foreign supermarkets, virtually ensuring that an opposition motion against the reform will be defeated.

India’s inflation is expected to trend lower during January-March, the Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said on Thursday, a month after he had indicated the central bank might ease monetary policy as early as January.

The Asian Development Bank slightly lowered its 2012 and 2013 growth estimates for developing Asia on Friday as frail global demand drags on the region despite indications that China’s economy has bottomed out.

The government plans to revolutionise the retail sector to make India a global shopping hub, with new labour laws to support 24-hour business, limiting reckless multiplication of malls to prevent urban chaos, and strong measures to ensure small shopkeepers also thrive in the transformation.
The government will move a crucial bill on Monday to amend the banking law while the finance ministry will engage with foreign institutional investors to hear out their concerns.