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Chinese equities opened higher on Monday, following their worst weekly performance last week since August. Elsewhere, other Asian equities traded mostly in the red, on the back of a mixed close from Wall Street last week.

US stocks closed mixed on Friday due to a 3 percent decline in oil prices. Oil tumbled USD 1.33, or 3.09 percent, to USD 41.71 a barrel as the dollar index, which hit a fresh eight-month high, added additional pressure to an oversupplied market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 15 points, or 0.08 percent, lower at 17,798.5 while the S&P 500 was up by 1.24 points, or 0.06 percent, to 2,090. The Nasdaq was up 11.4 points, or 0.22 percent, at 5,128.

Chinese stocks back in the green

The Shanghai Composite was back in positive territory in early morning trade, up 8 points, or 0.22 percent, at 3,444 although the limited gains suggest investors continue to remain concerned over the ongoing investigations of Chinese brokerages by regulators.

Last week, the China Securities and Regulatory Commission formally launched investigations into brokerages to weed out short selling and speculation.

Brokerages were trading mixed in early trade. Shares of Citic Securities were down 1.45 percent while Founder Securities and China Merchants were up 1.31 and 0.2 percent. Haitong Securities, which was not trading on Friday, plunged 9.34 percent.

Chinese banks were also mostly positive at the open as shares of Bank of China, CCB, and Bank of Commerce were up between 0.48 and 1.27 percent.

There was some optimism on the back of the news that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to announce its decision on Monday over the inclusion of the yuan into its Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket of currencies, making the yuan officially recognized reserve currency.

Nikkei trades 0.32 percent lower

Japan's Nikkei 225 traded 63 points, or 0.32 percent lower at 19,820 despite official data released this morning showing an uptick in industrial production and retail sales for October.

Japanese blue chip companies opened mixed, with most of them trading flat or in the red. Shares of Sony, Canon, and Mitsubishi Electric were down while Toyota was flat. Toshiba shares were up 2.29 percent as the struggling company said last week it would consider selling stake in its semiconductor business to raise funds as it recovers from its accounting scandal earlier this year.

Kospi dips over 1 percent

The Seoul Kospi was down 1.33 percent on Monday morning, as investors remain cautious over Asian equities.

Blue chip and tech companies were mostly down on the back of a surprise decline in industrial output for October. Industrial output fell 1.4 percent from the previous month as manufacturing lagged.

Shares of consumer electronics giant Samsung, LG Electronics, LG Display, steel manufacturer Posco, and KB Financial Group seeing between 0.7 and 3 percent declines. Shares of SK Hynix and Hyundai Motor bucked the trend and were up 1.25 and 0.33 percent.

Elsewhere, shares of Kakao Corp and KT Corp rallied after a consortium led by the two companies won a preliminary license from the Financial Services Commission (FSC) to launch South Korea's first internet-only bank, according to reports.

ASX down 0.49 percent; commodities weigh

The ASX 200 traded 25 points, or 0.49 percent lower at 5,177 following a drop in oil prices and a flat finish for industrial metals last week.

Resources and commodities producers were mostly in the red in early trading.

Shares of miners Mount Gibson were up 1.32 percent, Sandfire Resources down 2.38 percent. Atlas Iron down 4.55 percent and BC Iron down 2.08 percent

BHP Billiton was down 2.4 percent as news broke that Brazil's federal and state governments plan to sue the miner for 20 billion reais (USD 5.24 billion) in damages for the disaster at the Samarco iron ore mine earlier this month.

A tailings dam burst in the mine, unleashing 60 million cubic meters of mud and mine waste, killing at least 13 people and polluting a major river valley, according to Reuters.

BHP co-owns Samarco with Vale, the biggest iron ore miner.

Gold miners felt the effects of lower gold prices, opening mostly in negative territory. Last Friday, spot gold closed 1.2 percent lower at USD 1,057.5, its lowest price in nearly six year due to continued pressure from a strong US dollar.

Newcrest Mining and Evolution Mining saw early losses of 3.35 percent and 3.19 percent respectively while Alacer Gold was down 1.51 percent. Kingsgate saw a positive uptick of 0.79 percent in its share prices.

Oil producers were trading in positive territory despite a drop in oil prices in US trading on Friday. Shares of Santos, Oil Search, and Woodside Petroleum were up 0.5, 0.06, and 0.07 percent respectively.

On the data front, investors will be keeping an eye on Friday's non farms payroll data for November in the US, which are likely to give further indication on whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December.

In Asia-Pacific, a number of countries including Australia, India, and South Korea will be releasing their Q3 gross domestic product (GDP) data this week, the broadest measure of economic health.

China will be releasing its Purchasing Managers Index, a measure of its manufacturing sector later in the week, while Japan will announce industrial production and retail sales numbers later today.

Evan Lucas, market strategist at spreadbetter IG, said in a note investors will be watching a build up of yuan devaluation again.

"Friday's intraday collapse on the Chinese markets has been put down to the investigations into 'margin financing and short selling' at the three largest brokerage firms in China," he wrote. "However the fact that price action went global (Chinese ADR's were punished on the weekend) suggests something bigger – this could be the next leg of the July - August move."

First Published:Nov 30, 2015 7:55 AM IST