Japan's stocks lead most Asian markets higher
Shares in Japan led Asian stocks higher on Monday, boosted by a weaker yen and gains from Wall Street overnight.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 1.15% at 19,620.37 points in morning trade.
The dollar was buying 119.49 yen on Tuesday, compared with 119.52 yen in New York on Monday.
A weaker yen is good news for Japan's big exporters as it makes their products more affordable overseas and gives a boost to their profits.
In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite was up 1.29% at 3,913.81 points after a three day weekend.
Markets were still closed in Hong Kong due to a public holiday.
Meanwhile, Australian shares were higher after a four-day break over the Easter weekend.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 1.31% at 5,976.10 despite iron ore prices falling to their lowest in a decade.
Iron ore has lost 60 percent of its value in the past year.
Analysts were expecting trading to be sparse ahead of the Australian central bank's decision on lending rates which is due out later today.
But investors were boosted by retail sales numbers for February which showed an increase of 0.7% month-on-month, up from expectations of a 0.4% rise.
Meanwhile, South Korea's benchmark Kospi index traded flat, down 0.06% at 2,045.14.
Tech giant Samsung Electronics has forecast a quarterly operating profit of about 5.9tn won ($5.44bn; £3.65bn) for the first three months of 2015.
The numbers beat market expectations, but would mark a fall of more than 30% in profit from a year earlier.
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