Investing.com - Asia shares gained early Monday as investors bargain hunted following last week's global volatility.
Stocks in Japan bounced 3.1% higher on the Nikkei 225, after concerns about global growth impacting Japanese exports sent the index into correction territory on Friday, defined as a more than 10% decline from a recent peak.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.0%. The Hang Seng rose 1.1%, as talks were set to begin between Hong Kong government officials and pro-democracy student protesters Tuesday. Clashes between protesters and police escalated over the weekend but appeared to calm as the workweek started.
The week is expected to be an important one for Chinese markets because the Communist Party gathers in Beijing for an important planning meeting.
China is also expected to release third quarter GDP data Tuesday and the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges are expected to launch a program allowing investors from both sides to access each other's stocks, opening up a crucial channel for fresh capital flows.
Last week, U.S. stocks jumped up on Friday on better-than-expected earnings and on data revealing U.S. consumer sentiment made its biggest jump since July of 2007.
The Dow 30 rose 1.63%, the S&P 500 index rose 1.29%, while the NASDAQ Composite index rose 0.97%.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary consumer sentiment index rose to a seven-year high 86.4 for October from 84.6 in September. Analysts had expected the index to slip to 84.1 in October, and the surprise firmed the dollar.
Elsewhere, the Census Bureau reported that U.S. building permits rose 1.5% to 1.018 million in September, disappointing expectations for an increase of 2.8% to 1.0.29 million units, after a 5.1% drop to 1.003 million units in August.
Construction on new homes, however, drew applause. The report also showed that U.S. housing starts rose 6.3% in September to 1.017 million units, beating expectations for a 4.8% gain. Housing starts for August were revised to a 12.8% fall from a previously estimated 14.4% decline.