Hong Kong jumps nearly 2% as Asia stocks rise; Meituan shares surge more than 7%

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mostly higher in Monday trade as stocks in Hong Kong led gains regionally.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.76% in early trading.

Shares of Meituan in Hong Kong surged more than 7%. China's market regulator on Friday said it had fined the company about 3.4 billion Chinese yuan ($527.71 million) after finding it guilty of monopolistic practices. Still, that was far smaller than the 18.23 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) fine that Alibaba had been slapped with back in April.

Mainland Chinese stocks were also higher, with the Shanghai composite up 0.14% while the Shenzhen component hovered above the flatline.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.45% while the Topix index jumped 1.35%.

Elsewhere, shares in Australia lagged, with the S&P/ASX 200 down 0.5%.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.52% higher.

Markets in South Korea are closed on Monday for a holiday.

U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by just 194,000 in September, sharply lower than the Dow Jones estimate of 500,000, the Labor Department reported Friday. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate declined to 4.8%, above expectations for 5.1% and the lowest since February 2020.

Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 1.02% to $83.23 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 1.29% to $80.37 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 94.065 after a recent fall from above 94.2.

The Japanese yen traded at 112.34 per dollar, having weakened late last week from below 111.6 against the greenback. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7327, above levels below $0.724 seen last week.

— CNBC's Jeff Cox contributed to this report.