Asian stocks open week's first session mixed

Asian stocks opened the week mixed today, with the Australian, New Zealand stocks and the South Korean Kospi rising, and the Japanese stocks and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell, while the Chinese market continue to be closed in observance of China's public holidays.

The markets are anticipating the latest round of the high-level US-China trade talks in Washington later this week, in attempts to reach a final trade deal ahead of the expected escalation of the trade war by the middle of this month, as the US tariffs increase on Chinese imports worth $250 billion from 25% to 30% will come into effect starting from oct 15th.

The Japanese stocks fell today, as Topix fell by 0.19% or 2.92 points to 1,569.98 points, and Nikkei 225 fell by 0.30% or 63.57 points to 21,346.63.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 1.11% or 289.28 points to 25,821.03, while the South Korean Kospi rose by 0.08% or 1.66 points to 2,022.35.

New Zealand's NZX 50 rose by 0.47% or 51.12 points to 10,943.94, and the Australian S&P/ASX 200 rose by 0.54% or 35.12 points to 6,552.20.