Japanese stocks closed higher for a 15th consecutive day while other Asian shares wavered on Monday following a snap election in Japan on Sunday. The dollar also spiked to more than three-month highs against the yen during the session.
The Nikkei 225 index galloped 239.01 points, or 1.1%, to 21,696.65.
The Hang Seng Index dropped 181.36 points, or 0.6%, to 28,305.88
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition secured a two-thirds "super majority" after winning 312 out of 465 seats available at Sunday's election. Abe's solid win at the polls points to a continuation of fiscal and hyper-easy monetary policies under his Abenomics program.
Exporters notched gains on the softer Japanese currency: Nissan closed up 1.7%, Mitsubishi Motor was up 2.1% and Sony rose 0.9%.
Following the news, the U.S. dollar also spiked fetched as high as 114.09 yen in the session — its highest levels in more than three months.
The greenback traded at 113.75 late in the day.
In Korea, gains in blue-chip tech names were offset by declines seen in manufacturing plays and brokerages.
In corporate news, Singapore-listed Noble Group said it would be disposing of its capital stock of Noble Americas Corporation, the company's global oil liquids business, for roughly $582 million U.S. Noble shares tumbled 9.2% by late Monday.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand dollar inched higher to trade at $0.6976 after falling as low as $0.6929 in the session. The kiwi dollar had fallen following last week's announcement that a Labour Party coalition would be forming the government.
CHINA
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 recovered 3.95 points, or 0.1%, to 3,930.80
China's 19th Party Congress remained in focus as markets awaited signs on the future leadership line-up of the country, which will be officially unveiled later this week.
Also in China, average home prices in September rose 6.3% compared to one year ago.That figure was below the 8.3% increase seen in August.
In other markets
New Zealand markets were shut down for holiday
In Korea, the Kospi index inched up 0.51 points to 2,490.05
In Taiwan, the Taiex Index gained 6.33 points, or 0.1%, to 10,735.21
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index progressed 9.07 points, or 0.3%, to 3,349.80
In Australia, the ASX 200 faded 13.03 points, or 0.2%, to 5,893.96
