Markets in Asia finished mostly higher, with major indexes in China, Japan and Australia leading gains, extending last week's advance.
The Nikkei 225 regained 143.88 points, or 0.9%, to close Monday at 16,111.05.
The Japanese yen remained strong against the U.S. dollar, with the pair hovering around the 112-handle. The dollar-yen was at 112.86, down from levels over 120 at the beginning of the month, shortly after the Bank of Japan announced its shift to a negative interest rate policy.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index gained 178.59 points, or 0.9%, to 19,464.09
Energy plays in the region finished the session mixed, with shares of Woodside Petroleum declining 1.4% and Inpex losing 4.8%. But Japan's Fuji Oil and Australia's Oil Search bucked the trend, Fuji taking on 1%, with Oil Search ahead 2%.
Earnings season continued in Australia, with Bluescope Steel reporting its fiscal first-half numbers.
The Australian steelmaker reported net profit of A$200.1 million ($142.8 million U.S.) for the six months to December 31, up from A$92.7 million in the year-earlier period. Its shares added 1.6%
Logistics firm Brambles reported net profit for the six months to December 31 rose 2% on-year to $290.9 million U.S. and it increased its full year guidance. The company's interim dividend was set at A$0.145 ($0.10) a share. Brambles shares closed up 8.5%.
One of Singapore's biggest lenders, DBS Group, reported net profit for the three months ended December 31 rose 20% on-year to one billion Singapore dollars ($711 million U.S.), beating expectations from a Reuters poll for S$978 million. But the bank's charges for non-performing loans rose 17% on-year. DBS shares erased gains of as much as 1.6% and traded down 0.5%.
HSBC announced a 1% rise in its pretax profit for 2015 to $18.8 billion U.S. It missed the Reuters expectations for $21.8 billion U.S. For the last three months of 2015, the lender recorded a net loss of $1.3 billion U.S, compared with a net profit of $511 million U.S. a year earlier.
The Hong Kong-listed shares of HSBC retraced gains of as much as 1.5% to trade down 2.3%
CHINA
The Shanghai CSI 300 index picked up 67.28 points, or 2.2%, to 3,118.67
Over the weekend, reports emerged that China removed the head of its securities regulator, Xiao Gang, and replaced him with Liu Shiyu, the chairman of Agricultural Bank of China and a former deputy governor at the People's Bank of China
Chinese financial stocks gained, with brokerages Citic Securities, Huatai Securities and Founder Securities seeing gains of upward of 3.3%, while major banks closed up over 1% each. Shares of Agricultural Bank of China added 1.7%
Chinese mainland oil stocks were mostly up, with shares of China Oilfield gaining 2.2%.
In other markets;
In Korea, the Kospi index inched up 0.12 points to 1,916.36,
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index eked up 3.78 points to 2,660.65
In Taiwan, the Taiex index added 1.64 points to 8,326.68
The NZX 50 in New Zealand let go of 2.25 points to 6,139.46.
In Australia, the ASX 200 revived 48.43 points, or 1%, to 5,001.22.
