Asian equities ended the week on a high note, as Mainland China and Hong Kong outperformed and the Philippines underperformed.

China's financial regulators on Thursday unveiled a slew of measures to urge large state-owned mutual funds and insurers to purchase more A-shares.

China on Thursday detailed measures to encourage state-owned funds and insurers to buy more shares, aimed at stabilizing the struggling stock market at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to announce tariffs on Chinese imports.

On Monday, Hong Kong-listed growth stocks had a strong day, as the Hang Seng Index gained +1.75% and the Hang Seng Tech Index gained +2.59% following U.S. President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping’s Friday phone call that took place after Asia markets closed and before the U.S. markets opened.

China is guiding local mutual funds and insurers to boost investments into stocks in the government’s latest initiative to shore up its ailing equity market.

Starting this year, major Chinese state-owned insurance companies will "strive to" invest 30% of their new premium income in mainland-listed stocks, Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, told reporters. He said this should pump "hundreds of billions of yuan of new long-term funds" into the stock market.

State-owned insurers and mutual funds are expected to play a pivotal role in the process of stabilizing the stock market.

China said on Wednesday it will guide big state insurers and commercial insurance funds to increase investments in the A-share market, in a latest move to boost its lagging stock market.

Beijing is seeing diminishing returns on repeated attempts to reinvigorate the market, as investors worry about harder-to-control economic fundamentals, like weak consumer spending and the prolonged property crunch.