SYDNEY, NSW, Australia - Stocks in Asia all finished in the plus column on Monday.

It was a positive start to the week for all the major indices. The U.S. dollar conversely started the week on a weak note.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 jumped 191.71 points or 0.69 percent to 2,799.36.

China's Shanghai Composite gained 6.72 points or 0.21 percent to 3,259.96.

In Australia, the All Ordinaries climbed 39.20 points or 0.55 percent to 7,213.00.

South Korea's Kospi Composite inched up just 0.75 of a point or 0.03 percent to 2,452.25.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 rose 33.33 points or 0.29 percent to 11,525.87.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 9.33 points or 0.05 percent to 20,165.84.

On foreign exchange markets, the euro strengthened to 1.0232 by the Sydney close Monday. The British pound was in demand at 1.2188. The Japanese yen was sharply higher at 132.20. The Swiss franc too shot up sharply to 0.9507.

The Canadian dollar firmed to 1.2788. The Australian dollar was strongly bid at 0.7008. The New Zealand dollar increased to 0.6300.