Amidst apprehension over U.S. interest rates and the impending presidential election, the majority of Asian markets remained down on Friday. However, Chinese shares saw a boost following statistics that indicated the economy expanded as anticipated.

While chipmaker TSMC surged to new highs on stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings, technology stocks saw slightly smaller losses.

Wall Street's fairly flat overnight session sent subdued clues to regional markets. Although there were encouraging signs of resiliency in the U.S. economy, predictions for a smaller Federal Reserve interest rate drop in the near future mostly dampened market excitement.

China's economy expanded 4.6% year over year in the third quarter, as predicted, according to gross domestic product figures. Growth also quickened from quarter to quarter, although year-to-date GDP growth was still below than the government's 5% yearly goal.

Nevertheless, Friday's advances left Chinese equities on track for a subdued weeklong performance, helping them recover the majority of their weekly losses.

Earlier in the week, Chinese stocks saw significant losses due to investors' lack of trust in Beijing's signals on more stimulus measures. The government has not provided investors with sufficient specifics about the planned measures.

Taiwan's TSMC stood out as the company's Taipei shares shot up to a record high, up about 6%.

The largest contract chip manufacturer in the world continued to profit from strong demand driven by the artificial intelligence sector, posting better-than-expected third-quarter results and a positive outlook.

TSMC, which is frequently regarded as a predictor of the semiconductor business, indicated rising AI demand for the industry.

However, on Friday, most other Asian stocks that produce chips fell. Chip equipment maker ASML's poor outlook earlier this week, which said that chip demand from applications outside of AI was expected to stay sluggish, left the industry reeling.

Other Asian markets mainly headed for modest weekly drops, maintaining a tight range.

The consumer price index data for September indicated that inflation grew a little more than anticipated, although overall inflation remained strong. This led to a small uptick in Japan's Nikkei 225 and TOPIX indices.

The worst-performing index of the day was the ASX 200 in Australia, which fell 0.9% as investors booked profits on a recent record high. KOSPI in South Korea dropped 0.4%.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)