SINGAPORE (Reuters) -- Shares in Asian exporters such as Sony Corp. rose on Monday after tame U.S. inflation data reassured investors the world's top economy was heading for a soft landing, but miners fell on weaker base metal prices.
A regional share index touched the latest in a series of record highs and indexes in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong extended their record-setting runs.
Financial bookmakers in London forecast the FTSE 100 index to open between 10 and 21 points lower.
On Friday, U.S. data showed consumer prices held steady in November, confounding forecasts for a small rise and reassuring investors that inflation was under control in the most important overseas market for Asian firms.
Sony shares rose 2.2 percent and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. gained 2.6 percent. In Seoul, car maker Kia Motors rose 1.5 percent.
Mining stocks such as global heavyweights BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto fell after base metal prices faltered, but gains for financial stocks such as National Australia Bank nudged the S&P ASX 200 to its third straight record close.
Tokyo's Nikkei rose 0.3 percent to its highest close in seven months. Toshiba Corp. gained 1.3 percent after its subsidiary Westinghouse Electric won a nuclear power contract in China estimated to be worth as much as $8 billion.
MSCI's broadest index of Asian shares outside Japan was up 0.4 percent at 0615 GMT, after earlier hitting a record, while Singapore's Straits Times and an index of Hong Kong-listed shares in mainland China firms, known as H-shares, also hit new peaks.
Seoul's benchmark index closed up 0.8 percent and Taiwan's benchmark index rose 1.1 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was 0.1 percent higher at the lunchtime break.
The dollar lost steam after gaining against major currencies last week when mixed economic data appeared to make it less likely that the Federal Reserve would start lowering interest rates early next year.
The Bank of Japan is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at 0.25 percent on Tuesday at the end of a two-day policy meeting, so dealers are focusing on what Governor Fukui has to say.
"If Fukui suggests that the BOJ could raise rates in January, we could see the yen gain, as not everyone in the market is expecting a lift next month," said Toru Umemoto, chief forex strategist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo.
The dollar bought around 117.95 yen at 0615 GMT, down a touch from late on Friday in New York. The euro firmed to around $1.3105.
March 10-year Japanese government bond futures fell 0.24 point to 134.08, after tumbling as much as 0.55 point on Friday. The benchmark 10-year JGB yield rose 2.5 basis points to 1.685 percent.
Gold was trading around $617.50 an ounce.