Japan's Nikkei falls: Japan's Nikkei 225 fell more than 4% on Monday, while Australian shares hit new highs ahead of key economic data from China. The decline was led by a drop in real estate stocks, while department store holding company Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings suffered the biggest loss in the index. It fell by 11%.

Japan's August retail sales rose 2.8% from a year earlier, above a Reuters poll forecast of a 2.3% rise, and also above a revised 2.7% gain in July. The Topix saw a smaller decline of 3.13%.

The rupee weakened 0.29% to trade at 142.63 against the Japanese yen dollar. This movement in the Japanese markets is being seen at a time when investors are excited about the victory of Shigeru Ishiba in the Liberal Democratic Party elections last Friday. He will replace Fumio Kishida as the Prime Minister of Japan.

In addition, China released its official Purchasing Managers' Index for September, which stood at 49.8. While this figure is higher than the 49.5 predicted by Reuters economists, it marks a fifth consecutive month of contraction for China's manufacturing sector.

The Caixin PMI survey, a private survey compiled by S&P Global, will also be released on Monday.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 2.33% at the open, while China's CSI 300 gained 3.86%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.62% to surpass its all-time high of 8,246.2.

South Korea's Kospi

South Korea's Kospi fell 0.54%, and the small-cap Kosdaq slipped 0.49% In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new high overnight on Friday, as traders assessed fresh data that showed more momentum towards reining in inflation.

US market booming

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high, as a slowing inflation report further raised expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut, which also boosted small-cap stocks and all three of Wall Street's main indexes notched weekly gains. The 30-stock Dow rose 0.33% to close at 42,313.00. The S&P 500 lost 0.13%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.39%.