LNG Liquefied Natural Gas Limited

Asian markets rallied in early trading Friday, as rising oil prices lifted energy stocks, giving investors some reprieve from early-year selling.

The energy sector was up 1.3% in Australia, where the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6%.

Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. was up 7.2% and Woodside Petroleum Ltd. gained 1.3%.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average bounced from a near three-and-a-half month low, up 1%. South Korea's Kospi was up 0.5%.

Energy shares have taken a drubbing, rattled by losses in the oil market amid jitters about slowing global growth, with China at the center of those concerns. The energy sector has lost 8.3% and 4.2% in Australia and Hong Kong respectively year-to-date. But gaining oil prices overnight appeared to have encouraged buying.

Still, "we haven't necessarily hit the bottom," said Mohit Bajaj, managing director at brokerage WallachBeth Capital LLC.

Overnight, oil producers to miners and biotechnology stocks, some of the most beaten-down corners of the market, carved out sharp gains in the U.S. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.4% and the S&P 500 rose 1.7%.

U.S.-traded oil futures gained 2.4% to $31.20 a barrel. In Asia on Thursday, Brent crude oil was up 0.7% at $31.10 a barrel.

On Thursday shares in China breached their lowest levels since the summer crash in a volatile trading session, although they recovered by the close with the help of surging small cap stocks. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 2% to 3007.65, after dipping briefly intraday into bear market territory, defined as a fall of 20% or more from a recent high.

The Shanghai benchmark was down 15% year-to-date and off 42% from its June peak.

Before China's stock market opened Friday, the yuan traded at 6.5984 to one U.S. dollar, roughly unchanged from the previous day, when it weakened by as much as 0.7%.

The gap between the values of the currency on two sides of the border had widened slightly Thursday, causing jitters about how China's central bank would direct the market going forward. A record gap last week as bets by traders pushed the offshore yuan lower had threatened Beijing's campaign to pitch the yuan as a stable currency with international stature, triggering turmoil across the globe.

China's central bank forced the gap to close earlier this week by buying the freely traded yuan offshore through state-owned banks, according to traders. It guided the onshore currency slightly stronger early Thursday at 6.5616 to one U.S. dollar.

The Japanese yen slipped 0.1% to ¥ 118.18. The local currency has gained 2% year-to-date, as turmoil in Chinese and global markets send investors in a rush for safety.

The Indonesian rupiah strengthened 0.7% to 13,810 to one U.S. dollar. The currency had fallen as much as 1% on Thursday after news of explosions in the Southeast Asian country's capital city of Jakarta, although it recovered slightly after suspected government intervention following a rate cut by the central bank.

The Hong Kong dollar, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar, traded at 7.7793 to one U.S. dollar, after recording its sharpest drop in more than a dozen years overnight to as weak as 7.7894.

Gold prices were up 0.4% to $1077.50 a troy ounce.

Write to Chao Deng at Chao.Deng@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 14, 2016 21:05 ET (02:05 GMT)

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