Chinese shares led gains in Asia on Monday, touching a five-year high on rising stimulus bets, but growing expectations for a sooner-than-expected rate hike in the U.S. and lower oil prices capped advances elsewhere in the region.
U.S. stocks finished last week on the back foot as a week of mixed economic data, renewed U.S. dollar strength and sharply lower oil prices made traders cautious ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.8 percent, while the S&P 500 finished 0.6 percent lower. The tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.4 percent.
Shanghai Comp soars 2.2%
China's Shanghai Composite hit its highest level since August 2009 as comments by Premier Li Keqiang over the weekend heightened expectations of further stimulus. At the conclusion of the annual parliamentary session, the Chinese Premier sounded a warning on the economy and said that Beijing has room and the tools to step in should growth falter and impact employment.
Mainland lenders were upbeat, with Agricultural Bank of China (Shanghai Stock Exchange: 1288-SZ) and Industrial Bank (Shanghai Stock Exchange: 1166-SZ) being among the most active stocks traded on Monday. Both shares elevated 0.9 and 3.5 percent each. Brokerages also saw robust gains, with Huatai Securities and Haitong Securities (Shanghai Stock Exchange: 837-SZ) leaping 4.5 and 2.3 percent each.
Offshore Oil Engineering bolstered 1.3 percent after delivering a 55.5 percent rise in 2014 net profit.
Bucking the uptrend was state-owned carmaker FAW, whose shares sagged nearly 2 percent following news that its chairman Xu Jianyi is being investigated for corruption.
Nikkei flat
Japan's Nikkei 225 index scaled a fresh 15-year high of 19,349, but gave up gains at the end of the day as industrial robot maker Fanuc turned negative. The index heavyweight, which was a key contributor of the benchmark index's surge above the 19,000 mark last week, settled 0.6 percent lower.
Some exporters such as Suzuki Motor (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 7269.T-JP) and Nintendo (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 7974.T-JP) provided some support for the bourse, up 2.7 and 1.4 percent each. Financials also raked in gains, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 8306.T-JP) and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group notching up 1 and 1.6 percent each. Fukuoka Financial Group (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 8354.T-JP), meanwhile, made it to the list of top gainers, up 4.6 percent.
On Monday, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) commences its two-day monthly meeting and analysts expect the central bank to "stay put" on its pace of quantitative easing.