HONG KONG (AFP) - An overnight rally on Wall Street led Asian stocks higher on Friday as dealers moved in to pick up bargains following a torrid session the previous day.

Tokyo added 1.88 percent, Hong Kong 1.5 percent and Sydney 1.34 percent a day after each had suffered heavy losses due to miserable US data.

The rises followed a bounce on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones gained 0.56 percent after dropping 2.18 Wednesday.

They also came despite figures out of Japan showing the world's second biggest economy is facing another bout of deflation as wholesale prices fell 3.8 percent in April from a year earlier, the steepest drop in nearly 22 years.