HONG KONG — Asian stocks were mixed on Monday, with Japanese exporters helped by a weaker yen and gains in New York, but worries about China's inflation hurting Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Tokyo's Nikkei index rose 0.69 percent, or 70.59 points, to end at 10.345.11 while Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 finished 0.64 percent, or 30.3 points, higher at 4,786.0.
Seoul closed up 0.59 percent, or 12.24 points, at 2,082.16.
But Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.31 percent, or 75.08 points, to 23,801.78, while the Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.72 percent, or 19.57 points, to 2,695.72.
In Japan, Honda Motor was among the exporters gaining strongly, as it raised its outlook for US sales this year to 13.1 million vehicles compared with an earlier projection of 12.8 million.
Toyota rose 1.33 percent before announcing after the market closed that it remained the world's biggest automaker last year, with unit sales outstripping giant rival GM.
Kenichi Hirano, operating officer at Tachibana Securities, said gains by US stocks last week as well as an improvement in the euro and dollar against the yen were helping.
In addition, worries about rising inflation in some other markets might be giving Tokyo an advantage, he told Dow Jones Newswires.
However, fears that China will hike interest rates again to tame strong inflation, possibly early next month, continued to weigh on many markets, with banks leading declines in Hong Kong.
"We think China equities will remain range-bound due to frequent policy shifts in the coming months until counter-inflation policy effectiveness can be proven," Goldman Sachs said.
Traders generally were looking ahead to a meeting of the US Federal Reserve's policy committee on Tuesday and Wednesday for signs of any change in US stimulus measures. The meeting will be followed by US growth data on Friday.
Gains tailed off at the end of last week on Wall Street as worries emerged about personnel changes at Apple and Google, but the Dow closed 0.7 percent higher than the previous Friday.
The euro slipped against the dollar in Asian trade as investors took profits following a steep rise fuelled by growing optimism about Europe, dealers said.
The unit was lower at $1.3578 in early European trade from $1.3611 in New York late Friday, after rising as high as 1.3648. The single European currency fetched 112.50 yen compared with 112.43.
In rangebound trading, the dollar rose to 82.86 yen from 82.60 yen.
The euro fell due to profit-taking orders by Asian hedge funds and account-settling by Japanese exporters, FXOnline Japan senior strategist Soichiro Mori said.
On oil markets, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for March delivery, rose 41 cents to $89.52 per barrel and Brent North Sea crude for March was up 51 cents to $98.11.
Gold closed at $1,348.30-$1,349.30 an ounce in Hong Kong, up from Friday's finish of $1,347.00-$1,348.00.
In other markets:
-- Singapore ended flat, edging up 1.16 points to 3,185.76.
United Overseas Bank gained 0.83 percent to Sg$19.46 and Singapore Airlines advanced 0.13 percent to Sg$15.08.
-- Taipei was flat, edging down 6.59 points to 8,947.79.
Leading IC design house MediaTek was 0.38 percent lower at TW$394.0 while Uni-President Enterprise rose 1.0 percent to Tw$40.4.
-- Manila fell 1.22 percent, or 48.33 points, to 3,902.71.
The market was hit by concerns the central bank may hike interest rates soon after it last month raised its inflation forecast for 2011 to 3.6 percent from 2.4 percent.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone fell 0.6 percent 2,498 pesos, Metropolitan Bank closed off 1.6 percent at 60.40 pesos and Aboitiz Power lost 0.4 percent to 28.20 pesos.
-- Kuala Lumpur ended 0.29 percent, or 4.46 points, lower at 1,542.97.
Budget carrier AirAsia lost 4.1 percent to 2.82 ringgit, petroleum firm Kencana dipped 3.5 percent to 2.49 and plantation firm IOI Corp eased 0.7 percent to 5.85.
-- Jakarta fell 0.99 percent, or 33.48 points, at 3,346.06.
Coal producer Indo Tambangraya fell 3.9 percent to 46,050 rupiah and Bank Mandiri slid 1.8 percent to 5,500.
-- Wellington fell 0.06 points to 3,352.66.
Fletcher Building rose 0.5 percent to NZ$7.81 and Sky City rose 1.0 percent to NZ$3.27 while outdoor clothing company Kathmandu closed unchanged at NZ$2.10.
-- Mumbai gained 0.76 percent, or 143.75 points, to 19,151.75.
Indian shares have been choppy in recent weeks on concerns of monetary policy tightening by the Reserve Bank of India to tame inflation.
The Reserve Bank of India meets on Tuesday, where it is expected to raise key lending and borrowing rates by 25 basis points each.
Reliance Industries fell 1.52 percent to 971.5 rupees and software exporter Wipro fell for the second straight day, shedding 2.42 percent to 445 rupees.
-- Bangkok was 4.26 percent, or 42.89 points, lower at 963.68.
Banpu lost 36.00 baht to 748.00 baht, while PTT fell 18.00 baht to 321.00.
