SINGAPORE - Asian shares were mostly higher ahead of a key US jobs report out later on Friday night.

An hour into the trading day, the Singapore market was 0.4 per cent higher, trading at 3,318.09. Around $314.9 million of shares had been traded with gainers outnumbering losers 117 to 80. Volume was 867.5 million shares.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was 0.77 per cent higher at 24,015.82 while Japan's Nikkei was down 0.31 per cent at 17,832.42. The Shanghai stock exchange was 1.32 per cent higher.

Crude oil continued to lose ground, with Brent trading at around US$69 and WTI at around US$66.