Asian markets trade mostly higher in early deals on Monday Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in the morning deals on Monday on the back of Wall Street's strong gains on Friday. On the regional front, Chinese Shanghai Composite rose for a fifth day, led by a rally for property companies. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore are up with notable gains. Meanwhile, Indonesia and Malaysia are down marginally and South Korea is trading notably lower. Hang Seng surged by 296.02 points or 1.25% to 23,998.06, Straits Times rose 13.12 points or 0.40% to 3,287.37, Shanghai Composite increased by 14.82 points or 0.61% to 2,435.00 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 48.62 points or 0.54% to 9,023.38. On the flip side, KOSPI Index dropped 9.71 points or 0.49% to 1,954.72, Jakarta Composite contracted 9.06 points or 0.18% to 5,080.49 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.26 points or 0.01% to 1,854.89. The Japanese market remained shut for the trade today for Culture Day holiday.