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.

LONDON - OPEC on Monday said the world oil market shows signs of weakening in 2007 as economic growth slows, a problem the exporter group seeks to address through its decision last week to cut supply. In a monthly report, the group that pumps more than a third of the world's oil held its forecast for global demand growth at 1.3 million barrels per day and said a weakening US economy posed risks to the outlook."Risks for oil demand appear to be more weighed on the downside, given the dangers to global economic growth emanating from a visibly weakening US economy," the report by OPEC economists at the group's Vienna headquarters said.The report follows a deal last week by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut supply by 500,000 barrels per day, or 2 percent, from February 1. Oil in New York has risen about $2 a barrel since the decision to stand at $63.18."This reduction has been scheduled to come into effect after the winter season, ensuring sufficient crude supplies during this strong demand period while addressing looming market imbalances for 2007," the report said.Forecasts for 2007, including a supply surge from non-OPEC countries of 1.8 million bpd -- the fastest growth in two decades -- point to "weakening fundamentals," it said.Rising supply from the Caspian, Africa and other regions would, if realised, reduce demand for OPEC oil to an average of 28.29 million bpd from 28.93 in 2006, OPEC said.The world economy will also grow more slowly. OPEC expects an expansion of 4.4 percent next year led by developing countries, down from 5.1 percent in 2006.Lower outputThe International Energy Agency, adviser to the industrialised world, said last week its own, slightly higher estimate of oil demand growth next year faced downside risks.But the agency, an adviser to 26 industrialised countries, urged OPEC to hold off on making a new supply reduction because existing supply curbs were already tightening the oil market.OPEC's decision last week to cut supply followed a deal it implemented in November to lower output by 1.2 million bpd to stem a slide in prices from July's all-time peak of $78.40.The report from OPEC added to estimates showing that members have yet to cut output by the full amount promised.OPEC's 10 members bound by supply targets, all except Iraq, lowered supply to 26.86 million bpd in November, OPEC's report said, citing secondary sources.That was down 552,000 bpd from October, but well above OPEC's target for November of 26.3 million bpd.A Reuters survey on December 6 found November supply from the 10 fell to 26.91 million bpd, down 730,000 bpd from October. Reuters

LONDON — Oil prices continued to slide Tuesday, a day after a warm-weather forecast in the United States triggered the biggest one-day drop in a month.
Prices dropped 1.9 per cent on Monday, reversing last week's series of gains. It was the biggest dollar and percentage drop for the front-month contract since Nov. 16.
On Tuesday, light sweet crude for January delivery fell 37 cents (U.S.) to $61.84 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
February Brent at London's ICE Futures exchange fell 56 cents to $61.57 a barrel.Monday's price drop in the oil complex was led by heating oil, which dropped after the U.S. National Weather Service predicted above-normal temperatures for most of the country, the world's biggest energy user, for the rest of December.
Crude oil prices rose $1.41 a barrel last week, mostly because the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries agreed to cut production by a further 500,000 barrels a day starting February. The decision came on the heels of the cartel's October decision to remove 1.2 million barrels a day of production from the market.
While traders were initially skeptical of OPEC's ability to get members to comply with the October cut, a drop in production from most of the cartel's 11 members has given more weight to the last decision.
Crude had less of a fall than heating oil Monday, continuing to trade between $60 and $64 a barrel, a range it has been stuck in since the end of November.
The next planned event traders will focus on is the weekly U.S. inventory data from the Department of Energy, due Wednesday.
Stocks of crude oil and distillate, which include heating oil and diesel, are expected to decline, while gasoline is expected to increase slightly.
In other Nymex trading Tuesday, heating oil futures fell 0.32 of a cent to $1.7175 a gallon, unleaded gasoline was down 0.4 of a cent to $1.6582 per gallon and natural gas futures rose 3.1 cents to $7.106 per 1,000 cubic feet.