Asia: Markets see mixed start ahead of BoJ meeting

LONDON (ShareCast) - Asian stocks were mixed on Monday ahead of US and Japanese central bank meetings this week. Shanghai started the week 3.04% higher while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.33% on news that HSBC might spin-off its UK operations and move to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong listed shares of HSBC were rising by 3.59% to $76.45.

The copper market continued to strengthen on speculation that China will introduce further economic stimulus to boost growth.

Meanwhile, expectations of a rise in Chinese demand continued to support oil prices. Brent was trading up 0.26% at $65.11 on Monday morning.

However, Kevin Norrish, analyst at Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) , said "The cart is moving ahead of the horse, and we take a cautious view on further price appreciation over the near-term. There are several singular sources of demand strength but little evidence to suggest that a broad pickup in consumption is occurring." Australia's ASX was also up 0.83% helped by the surge in crude oil prices. The Australian miner BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) started the day up by 2.1% but finished down 1.41% on news that it may be hit with a $522m tax bill from its Singapore's marketing operations. Its rival Rio Tinto (Xetra: 855018 - news) also finished 0.88% down from early gains of 3.1%.

On the bright side, Aussie oil and gas company Santos was up 4.38% driven by the increase in oil prices.

However, Japan's Nikkei fell 0.18% as investors await for the Bank of Japan's meeting due on Thursday. Investors believe no further stimulus will be implemented, while the central bank is expected to cut its growth and inflation forecasts.

Retail trade data is also due overnight.

The yen was higher against the dollar at ¥119.15 from ¥118.98 the day before.