Asian Market Update

Asian equity markets mostly rose Monday following a rally on Wall Street and a strong pick-up in oil prices, but Shanghai plunged almost six percent after Chinese regulators suspended three major brokerages over rule violations.

The euro continued to struggle against the dollar and yen ahead of this week's European Central Bank (ECB) meeting that is expected to see it unveil a vast bond-buying scheme to kickstart the eurozone economy.

Tokyo rose 0.52 per cent, Sydney added 0.90 per cent, Seoul advanced 0.92 per cent and Singapore put on 0.24 per cent.

However, Shanghai dived 5.88 per cent in the first few minutes, while Hong Kong gave up 0.62 per cent.