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Hong Kong - Asian shares mostly rose on Monday following a mixed lead from Wall Street, while Tokyo was boosted by a parliamentary election win for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling party.
Tokyo added 0.47%, or 68.13 points, to 14 658.04 and Sydney gained 0.60%, or 29.8 points, to close at 5 001.9, while Seoul rose 0.48%, or 8.94 points to 1 880.35.
In the afternoon Hong Kong was flat and Shanghai was up 0.46%.
Bangkok was closed for a public holiday.
Japan's Nikkei rallied more than one percent in the first few minutes before settling back following Sunday's upper house election victory for the Liberal Democratic Party that will likely usher in a period of stability for Japan.
The win means both chambers of parliament will be under government control, unblocking the bottleneck that has hampered legislation for the past six short-term premiers.
That will strengthen Abe's hand as he tries to push through structural reforms aimed at dragging Japan out of two decades of economic malaise.
In Shanghai, traders sold financial stocks after the government at the weekend removed a lower limit on lending rates, leaving banks free to set their own rates. Analysts said the move could result in narrower interest margins for lenders.
Focus will now be on the release on Wednesday of Chinese manufacturing data that will provide a fresh clue about the state of the world's number two economy.
Wall Street ended mixed as weak corporate results from tech firms offset a strong showing for industrials. The Dow ended flat, while the S&P 500 was up 0.16% and the Nasdaq fell 0.66%.
The dollar slipped to ¥100.11, from ¥100.50 in New York Friday, while the euro bought ¥131.61 and $1.3145, compared with ¥132.08 and $1.3142.
And on oil markets, New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in August, rose 37 cents to $108.42 a barrel, while Brent North Sea crude for September was up 32 cents at $108.39.
Gold cost $1 316.00 per ounce at 08:50, compared with $1 289.56 late Friday.
In other markets:
-- Taipei rose 0.54%, or 43.42 points, to 8,105.45. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. slipped 1.22% to Tw$97.0 while leading chip design house MediaTek was up 2.48% at Tw$330.5.
-- Wellington added 0.35%, or 15.74 points, to 4 554.04.
Telecom was up 1.09% at NZ$2.315, Fletcher Building rose 0.24% to NZ$8.50 and Chorus was steady at NZ$2.65.
