The economic outlook was boosted by Chinese manufacturing purchasing manager index data on Friday exceeding estimates, Bloomberg reported, and Black Friday hitting a record US$7.4 billion in US online sales.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 was up in midday trade and metals and mining stocks were up 0.25%.
Gold equities were lower but producer Silver Lake Resources (ASX: SLR) was up 4.95% as it shores up its acquisition of Goldfields explorer EganStreet Resources.
In Toronto, Aurania Resources (TSX: ARU) jumped a further 11.3% on Friday following news it had found evidence of an old road on its Lost Cities-Cutucu project in Ecuador it believes leads to one of the country's lost gold production centres.
Metals and mining stocks had closed 0.45% higher on the S&P/TSX Composite Index.
Finally, nickel ended November down 2.4% and about 18% lower for the month, its biggest monthly drop since September 2011 on faltering steel output from China and the waning impact of an Indonesian ore export ban, according to wire service reports.
