Asian stocks were off to a steady start to the week on Monday, but the fragile mood of equity markets and lingering concerns about a potential return to recession kept investors cautious.
The FTSE CNBC Asia 100 Index [.FTFCNBCA 6141.23 
93.62 (+1.55%)], which measures markets across Asia, gained 0.7 percent.
In Japan, Tokyo stocks climbed after global markets rose last week helped by a short-selling ban on financial stocks in Europe, while Japan’s gross domestic product data in April-June showed a smaller-than-expected contraction.
Shares of Osaka Securities Exchange were untraded with a glut of buy orders at 406,000 yen, 7.4 percent above Friday’s closing price after the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Saturday that the Tokyo Stock Exchange plans to take over the OSE through a tender offer bid.
The Nikkei [.N225 9073.70 109.98 (+1.23%)] gained 1.3 percent to 9,085.18, while the broader Topix advanced 1.2 percent to 777.65.
Australian stocks jumped 1.5 percent, helped by short-covering and solid domestic corporate earnings as investors recovered after a rocky week shaken by worries of a fresh global recession.
Shares in Leighton Holdings, Australia’s top contractor, jumped 4.2 percent after the company stuck to its profit guidance for the 2012 financial year.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index [.AXJO 4253.70 81.10 (+1.94%)] gained 63.3 points to 4,235.9. New Zealand’s benchmark NZX 50 index rose 0.9 percent to 3,244.3.
Shares in Newcrest Mining, the world’s no.3 gold miner, dipped 0.5 percent in line with a retreat in the gold price.
The miner earlier reported a 36 percent rise in full-year underlying profit, thanks to soaring gold prices and its takeover last year of Lihir Gold, in line with market forecasts.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore’s STI [.FTSTI 2866.21 15.62 (+0.55%)] and Malaysia’s KLCI [.KLSE 1487.96 4.29 (+0.29%)] climbed 0.9 and 0.2 percent respectively.
Markets in South Korea are closed for a public holiday.
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