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

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.

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.

Asian equities were higher, except for Hong Kong and Mainland China, which were off following President Trump’s 10% tariff threat, which prompted profit-taking after six days of gains.

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.

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.

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

China announced plans on Thursday to channel hundreds of billions of yuan of investment from state-owned insurers into shares as part of the government's latest efforts to support a struggling 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.