Asian markets ended mostly higher on Monday, as traders shrugged off data released over the weekend that revived concerns over the Chinese economy.

Japan's Nikkei 225 (Nihon Kenzai Shinbun: .N225) pared some of its over 1 percent gains from early morning to close up 54.19 points, or 0.33 percent, at 16,466.40, while across the Korean Strait, the Kospi (Korea Stock Exchange: .KS11) ended near flat at 1,967.91. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: .HSI) was up 0.58 percent as of 3:05 p.m. HK/SIN.

Chinese mainland markets reversed their morning losses, with the Shanghai composite (Shanghai Stock Exchange: .SSEC) closing up 23.82 points, or 0.84 percent, at 2,850.93, and the Shenzhen composite (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJSZ) ended higher by 30.69 points, or 1.72 percent, at 1,815.02.

Australia's ASX 200 (^AXJO) finished up 29.91 points, or 0.56 percent, at 5,358.90, with a 0.57 percent gain in the financials sub-index which accounts for nearly half of the broader index.

Some of the mining stocks came under pressure, with shares of Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR-AU) closing down 0.18 percent and South32 (ASX:S32-AU) off by 1.48 percent. Major miners were positive, with Fortescue (ASX:FMG-AU) up 1.04 percent and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO-AU) higher by 1.25 percent.

Angus Nicholson, a market analyst at spreadbetter IG, said relative strength in the dollar, following positive U.S. April retail sales numbers released on Friday, will likely increase challenges for the materials and energy space.

The dollar gained slightly against a basket of currencies, with the dollar index (New York Board of Trade (Futures): =USD) trading at 94.617 Monday afternoon in Asia, compared to the 93 levels it touched on Friday Asia time.

"The strongest increase in retail sales in more than a year drove the U.S. dollar sharply higher against all of the major currencies, but the gains did not last," said Kathy Lien, managing director of foreign exchange strategy at BK Asset Management. She added that investors quickly "realized that one good release won't change anyone's mind about leaving interest rates unchanged in June."

Some analysts said despite the strong data, performance in the equity market will also drive the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision on whether to hike interest rates in June or stand pat.

"A weak performance by U.S. equities saw the probability of the Fed Funds rate being 25-points higher by December fall to 60 percent from 64 percent on Thursday," said Rodrigo Catril, a currency strategist at the National Australia Bank. "The Fed's reaction function is still more equity dependent than data dependent in the market's mind, or so it would seem."