Asia stocks higher, Nikkei up 1.3%, Kospi rises 0.2%

Elsewhere, the Japanese yen remained at the 113 handle against the greenback. The dollar/yen pair traded at 113.75 as of 8:13 a.m. HK/SIN time. Japanese exporters mostly traded up, with shares of Toyota adding 0.77 percent, Nissan gaining 1.64 percent and Honda higher by 1.17 percent.

Central banks are in focus this week, as the Bank of Japan starts its two-day monetary policy meeting on Monday and the US Federal Reserve meets later this week.

Angus Nicholson, a market analyst at IG, said in a morning note, "It is a delicate time in global markets as we witness a potentially significant change in major central bank dynamics."

After the European Central Bank meeting last week moved away from targeting the currency to targeting credit growth and financial conditions, Nicholson said, "it will be very interesting to see if some sort of secret 'Shanghai Accord' at the G20 may have been reached that de-emphasised currency devaluations by central banks."

At the G-20 meeting in Shanghai in February, finance ministers and central bankers discussed a coordinated response to stimulating global growth, but came to no firm agreement on action.

On Friday, US indexes closed sharply higher, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 1.28 percent, the S&P 500 higher by 1.64 percent and the Nasdaq composite gaining 1.85 percent.