Asian equities finished mixed in Monday trade on the back of heightened geopolitical tensions after a move by the U.S. military to send an aircraft carrier group near the Korean Peninsula and a U.S. missile strike in Syria last Friday.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan climbed 133.25 points, or 0.7%, to 18,797.88
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index fell back 5.12 points to 24,262.18
Japanese automakers were higher on the back of a weaker yen, with Mazda Motor leading gains and up by 2% to close at 1,531.5 yen per share.
Suzuki Motor shares closed higher by 1.4% at 4,580 yen a share.
In Japan, the February unadjusted current account balance surplus jumped to the largest since March 2016 at 2.814 trillion yen, compared to 2.616 trillion yen seen.
Korean markets were down, with China-exposed stocks pressured following heightened tensions in the Korean peninsula. Shares for Lotte Shopping, the retail arm of conglomerate Lotte, tumbled 2.7% to close at 214,500 won per stock, while shares of LG Electronics plunged 4.2% to finish at 67,900 won.
Shares of LG Display, LG Corporation's LCD manufacturing arm, rose by 0.8% to close at 30,100 won on a reported offer from Google to invest $1 trillion won ($880.29 million U.S.) to increase organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen production for Google's Pixel smartphones. LG Display did not respond to an email request for confirmation about the investment.
Australian markets moved forward, driven by their materials and utilities sub-indexes which rose 2.1% and 1.2% respectively.
Miner Rio Tinto paid $4 billion U.S. in taxes and royalties last year and was ordered to pay an extra $284 million with interest due to its operations in tax-friendly destinations. The news comes as the Australian Taxation Office pays greater attention to the amount of taxes paid by multinational corporations in Australia. Rio Tinto was up by 1.4% and finished at A$60.86 a stock.
North Korea responded to the U.S. strike on a Syrian airbase by stating that it was a justification for its own nuclear weapons program, adding that it had to protect itself against Washington's "reckless moves for a war." A U.S. Navy strike group is expected to move closer to the Korean peninsula following North Korea's multiple nuclear missile test launches.
The dollar-yen traded at 111.41, higher compared to levels around 110.86 seen last week while the Australian dollar was softer at $0.7491, versus the $0.76 U.S. handle seen last week.
In other markets
The CSI 300 in Shanghai backtracked 12.08 points, or 0.3%, to 3,505.64
In Taiwan, the Taiex index forged ahead 9.17 points, or 0.1%, to 9,882.54
The Kospi Index in Korea dropped 18.41 points, or 0.9%, to 2,133.32
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index gained 4.18 points, or 0.1%, to 3,181.45
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 slipped 4.9 points, or 0.1%, to 7,238.86
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 50.42 points, or 0.9%, to 5,912.88
