Asian equities traded mixed on the first day of the final trading week for 2015.

Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy and chief economist at AMP Capital, said in a note last week that shares will likely see their "traditional Santa Claus rally over the Christmas/New Year period as investors take advantage of improved valuations, monetary conditions remain easy and new issuance dries up into year end."

However, Oliver warned about the Federal Reserve and a strong dollar "possibly weighing on commodity prices and emerging countries may mean that volatility will remain high."

The Australian market remains closed today. It was closed Friday for the Christmas holiday.

U.S. crude futures for February delivery were down 27 cents, or 0.71 percent, at $37.83 a barrel in Asian trade, nearing parity with the internationally traded Brent futures , which were down 13 cents, or 0.34 percent, at $37.76 a barrel. Last week, U.S. crude futures posted their biggest weekly gain since early October, tacking on 9.7 percent for the holiday-shortened trading week.

But J.P. Morgan Asset Management's chief Asia market strategist, Tai Hui, told CNBC's " Asia Squawk Box " that the huge supply glut in oil is not going to change anytime soon.

"If you look at demand and supply dynamics, it does suggest that oil prices should not be at $30. It should be slightly higher. But the reality again is that OPEC seems to be still very committed to this game to price out its competitors," he said.

Energy plays in Asia traded mixed in the afternoon session. Shares of Japan's Inpex (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 1605.T-JP) and Japan Petroleum (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 1662.T-JP) were both up 0.95 percent each. In South Korea, S-Oil and SK Innovation (Korea Stock Exchange: 9677-KR) were down 2.81 and 2.59 percent respectively.

Chinese energy plays such as CNOOC (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 883-HK) and Sinopec (Shanghai Stock Exchange: 688-SZ) traded down 0.71 and 1.41 percent. Meanwhile, shares of PetroChina (Shanghai Stock Exchange: 1857-SZ) trimmed morning losses to remain unchanged. Earlier, reports said the company plans to consolidate its pipelines assets into a single entity to streamline operations.

The Japanese market traded higher, with the main Nikkei 225 (Nihon Kenzai Shinbun: .N225) index up 86 points, or 0.46 percent, at 18,855.

Shares of Sharp Corp (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6753.T-JP). jumped 7.27 percent during trade. According to local media reports last week , citing sources close to the matter, Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry (Taiwan Stock Exchange: 2317-TW), one of the largest suppliers of electronics products, proposed to buy the Japanese company for 300 billion yen.

Hon Hai (Taiwan Stock Exchange: 2317-TW) shares were down 0.37 percent.

Before trading started, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) released the country's November industrial output data.

Japan's factory output for the previous month fell 1 percent on-month, lower than a market expectation of a 0.6 percent drop.

Manufacturers, however, remain optimistic over output. Those surveyed by METI said they expect output to rise 0.9 percent in December and 6 percent in January.

Japan's November retail sales fell 1 percent on-year, more than a forecast for a 0.6 percent decline, according to a Reuters poll.

Retail giant and index heavyweight Fast Retailing (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 9983.T-JP) fell 1.48 percent.

The yen traded (Exchange: JPY=) near flat at 120.42 against the dollar.

In Korea, the Kospi (Korea Stock Exchange: .KS11) was trading down 0.8 percent at 1,975 in the afternoon.

Shares of Samsung Group companies were mostly trading lower across the board, with Samsung C&T (: 02826K-KR) seeing a loss of 4.12 percent.

Last week, reports said Samsung SDI, which primarily makes batteries, will sell 2.6 percent stake in Samsung C&T (: 83-KR) to comply with cross-shareholding regulations.

Shares of Samsung SDI (Grey Market: SSDIF) were down 1.75 percent.

Samsung Electronics (: 593'A-KR) shares were down 0.86 percent in afternoon trade. Reuters, citing South Korea's Electronic Times, reported that the smartphone maker announced plans for an initial production of about 5 million units of its upcoming Galaxy S7 smartphones.

Meanwhile, shares of Samsung Engineering erased morning losses to trade up 5.14 percent in the afternoon session. The company released details on the Korean stock exchange of a contract it signed last week for the second phase on a Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) project with Pemex Transformacion Industrial, a fuel processing subsidiary of state-owned oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in Mexico.

Elsewhere, shares of Daewoo Securities were down 1.47 percent after reports emerged that Mirae Asset Group, one of the country's leading asset managers, was selected as the preferred bidder to take over the company.

Shares of Mirae were down 0.64 percent.

Chinese markets lost their early momentum as the Shanghai Composite (Shanghai Stock Exchange: .SSEC) index slipped into negative territory, down 0.2 percent at 3,621. The smaller Shenzhen Composite trimmed some gains but still traded up 0.4 percent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: .HSI) was down 0.41 percent at 22,047.

Before trade, the People's Bank of China set the yuan mid-point range at 6.4750 per dollar. The yuan traded (Exchange: CNY=) near flat at 6.4763 against the dollar during afternoon trade.

Profits earned by industrial companies in China were down, according to official data released overnight. Reports showed China's industrial profits in November fell for the sixth consecutive month; it was down 1.4 percent on-year.

Data compiled for industrial profits look at large enterprises with annual revenue of more than $3.1 million according to Reuters.

Mainland resources producers traded mostly lower.

On the Hong Kong bourse, shares of China Telecom (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 728-HK), one of the biggest telco providers in the country, traded down 1.07 percent. Its chairman, according to the China's anti-corruption watchdog, is being investigated for alleged violation of discipline, without providing further details.

Last week U.S. markets closed mixed on Christmas eve, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI) down 0.29 percent at 17,552.17. The S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) finished 0.16 percent higher at 2,060.99 and the Nasdaq (NASDAQ: .IXIC) composite closed up 0.05 percent at 5,048.49.

— Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.

More From CNBC

• Top News and Analysis
  

• Latest News Video
  

• Personal Finance