China LPR, South Korea GDP, Japan inflation

Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Monday as traders assessed China’s loan prime rate announcement, with focus also on Japan’s general election at the end of this week.

China’s central bank cut the one- and five-year LPRs by 25 basis points to 3.1% and 3.6%, respectively.

This has been indicated by the People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gon7sheng on Friday.

ING in a note last week also said that the PBOC was likely to release its rate decision for the medium term lending facility on Friday, although it is expected to be left unchanged at 2% after being reduced by 30 basis points last month.

“Data aside, it is worth monitoring if there are potential further government ministry briefings or a potential announcement of the timing for the National People’s Congress meeting in the week ahead, as stimulus rollout remains a major theme for markets,” ING said.

Other key economic data this week will include October inflation figures for Japan’s capital city of Tokyo, as well as advance third-quarter GDP figures from South Korea.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 closed marginally lower at 38,954.6, while the broad based Topix fell 0.34% to 2,679.91.

South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.43%, snapping a three day losing streak and ending at 2,604.92, while the small-cap Kosdaq jumped 0.89% to 759.95, also ending a three day losing streak.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 closed up 0.74% at 8,344.4.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.43% as of its final hour, while mainland China’s CSI 300 rose 0.25% to 3,935.19.

In the U.S., both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to record highs Friday, sealing six straight weeks of gains.

The broad market benchmark advanced 0.40% to close at 5,864.67, while the blue-chip Dow gained 36.86 points, or 0.09%, to end at 43,275.91.

The Nasdaq Composite, led by a postearnings jump in Netflix, ended the day up 0.63% at 18,489.55.

— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Alex Harring contributed to this report.