The Tokyo stock exchange begins the trading week in a sunny mood. At lunchtime on Monday, the important Nikkei 225 was up 1.4 percent and the broader Topix index had risen by 0.9 percent.
Also in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index had risen by 0.2 percent while South Korea's Kospi index had increased by just as much.
Shanghai's and Shenzhen's composite indexes, however, both went against the trend and had fallen by 0.2 and 0.1 percent, respectively.
