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Bangkok - World stock markets were split on Monday, with Asian shares trading mostly higher after Japanese industrial production rose but shares elsewhere dipping as traders struggled to push aside worries over political turmoil in Opec-member Libya.
Oil prices hovered above $99 a barrel as Libya's violent power struggle continued to disrupt crude output. In currencies, the dollar was up against the yen but lower against the euro.
European bourses fell in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.4% to 6,000.78 while Germany's DAX was 0.4% down to 7 157.58. The CAC-40 in Paris was down 0.2% to 4 060.23. Wall Street was bracing for a lower opening, with Dow Jones futures down 0.2% to 12 090 and S&P 500 futures 0.3% lower to 1 314.90.
Investor sentiment in Asia benefited from an announcement by Tokyo that Japanese industrial production rose for a third straight month in January as overseas demand for Japanese goods continued to accelerate. That was good news for Japan's economy, which is heavily dependent on foreign markets.
The Nikkei 225 stock average rose 0.9% to close at 10 624.09 after a sluggish start that took the index temporarily into negative territory. Export-driven companies rose, including Toyota, up 1.7%; Hitachi, up 2.7%; and Toshiba, up 1.1%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.4% to 23 338.02 while shares in the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Thailand and New Zealand - where a major earthquake devastated the city of Christchurch last week - also gained.
Mainland Chinese stocks advanced, led by shares in development zones and appliance retailers. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.9% to 2 905.05. The Shenzhen Composite Index gained 1.2% to 1 295.81.
Suzhou New District Hi-tech Industrial, which runs a development zone, and white goods manufacturer Wuxi Little Swan both hit the daily upside limit of 10%.
Investors are betting on favorable policies from the annual session of the national legislature, which begins next weekend, analysts said.
"Stocks gained today not just because of the annual session, but also because they expect monetary policy to range from relatively loose to prudent," said Yang Yining, an analyst at Capital-Edge Investment & Management in Shanghai.
Seoul's Kospi index dropped 1.2% to 1 939.30 following threats by North Korea to retaliate against South Korea for participating in annual military drills with the US Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was off 0.1% at 4 830.50. Singapore's benchmark was also down.
All eyes on Bernanke
Analysts also said investors were looking ahead to Federal Reserve chairperson Ben Bernanke's testimony about economic policy before congressional committees in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday. His testimony will be closely watched for signals about when the Fed is likely to start raising interest rates from record lows.
"This will be an important week in deciding if the Fed will lag other major central banks in hiking rates, which in turn, would set the US dollar on a depreciation path," analysts at DBS Bank in Singapore said in a report.
"Even so, market sentiment remains fragile because of fear that last week's spike in oil prices from the Libyan political crisis could hurt the global economy like in the 1970s."
Concerns over oil production eased late last week after the International Energy Agency said on Thursday that the impact of fighting on Libyan oil supplies was far less than analysts had estimated and that any shortfall could be easily made up by tapping oil reserves in other countries.
Libya is Africa's largest producer of oil but only ranks 15th among the world's oil exporters. Traders have been concerned that unrest could not only threaten Libya's oil production but also spread to other countries in the region such as Saudi Arabia.
Gains in Asia mirrored rises on Wall Street on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.5% to 12 130.45, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index closed up 1.1% at 1 319.88.
But both indexes were still down last week overall, largely due to concerns over fighting in Libya and the effect on oil prices.
Benchmark crude for April delivery was up $1.13 at $99.02 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 60c to settle at $97.88 on Friday.
In currencies, the dollar rose to ¥81.75 from ¥81.63 late on Friday. The euro was higher at $1.3787 from $1.3748.
