Investing.com - Asian shares mostly gained in Asia on Monday with investors upbeat on US returns so far this year, even as they take a breather with markets in the States shut for the martin Luther King holiday.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.31%. SoftBank Group jumped 4.09% following news from Nikkei Asian Review that the company aimed to list SoftBank Corp., its mobile arm, both in Tokyo and abroad this year. The listing could raise around 2 trillion yen ($18 billion) for the company, Nikkei added.
SoftBank said in a statement the listing of its mobile unit was an option for the company, but that no official decision had been made.
In Australia the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.26%. Newcrest Mining rose 3.05% and Evolution Mining was up 5.66%.
In Greater China, the Shanghai Composite dipped 0.05% and the Hang Seng index posted a 0.62% increase. The People's Bank of China on Monday set the yuan midpoint at 6.4574 to the dollar, its firmest level since May 2016.
China is slated to release what will be closely watched fourth-quarter growth data, while in Europe investors will await monthly inflation data to assess how fast the ECB could start unwinding its asset purchase program
Investors digetsed a busy weekend of news, including prospects that germany may soon be heading into a fresh coalition government, though some remarks suggest the deal remains a work-in-progress.
Last week, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 228.46 points to close at 25,803.19, an all-time high. The S&P 500 also reached a record high, climbing 0.7% to 2,786.24 with energy and consumer discretionary as the best-performing sectors. Energy stocks got a boost from rising oil prices.