Asian shares lifted by bargain-buying

Hong Kong - Asian markets rose on Monday following a record close on Wall Street, while investors picked up bargains after broad losses last week.

The dollar edged up slightly against the yen but remained under pressure on expectations the US Federal Reserve will keep its monetary easing policy in place well into the new year.

Tokyo rose 1.04%, Hong Kong added 0.24% and Sydney gained 1.19% while Shanghai was 0.29% higher and Seoul advanced 0.14%.

Wellington was closed for a public holiday.

The gains follow a lacklustre performance in the region last week following worse than expected jobs figures out of the United States that indicate the economy is not as strong as first thought.

Traders took their cue from New York, where Wall Street's three main indexes posted healthy gains on Friday thanks to upbeat corporate results.

Amazon and Microsoft posted better-than-expected earnings for the July-September quarter, while there were also solid results from Procter & Gamble and UPS.

The Dow rose 0.39%, while the broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.44%t to a new record. The Nasdaq tacked on 0.37%.

US shares, like most global stocks, have been given some support from traders betting the Fed will hold off winding down its $85bn a month bond-buying stimulus for some time.

There had been a widespread belief it would begin tapering the scheme by December at the latest but analysts say the weak jobs data and this month's government shutdown has made that unlikely.

The prospect of a continuation of the Fed's pump-priming - which sees vast sums of dollars flood the financial system - has weighed on the greenback in recent weeks, although it picked up a tad in Asia Monday.

In early Tokyo trade the unit bought ¥97.47 compared with ¥97.43 in New York Friday, while the euro was at $1.3814 and ¥134.68 against $1.3805 and ¥134.50.

"Amid growing expectations of continued Fed stimulus, the dollar will likely remain under pressure in the near-term," Naoya Nishimura, a strategist at Resona Bank, told Dow Jones Newswires.

On oil markets New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in December, was down 19 cents at $97.66, while Brent North Sea crude for December gained 7c to $107.00.

Gold rose to $1 349.20 at 01:00 GMT compared with $1 340.35 on Friday.