Asian Shares edge higher, oil nurses losses

Asian shares rose on Monday as investors put aside concerns about euro zone banks and looked forward to corporate earnings and a raft of global economic events, including testimony from the head of the Federal Reserve. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.4 per cent, with Seoul putting on 0.3 per cent. Japan's Nikkei bounced 0.88 per cent after several sessions of losses. Singapore's main index went flat after the city-state reported a surprise 0.8 per cent annualised contraction in economic activity for the second quarter, led by a steep drop in manufacturing. Financial spread-betters expected the FTSE 100 to open up 0.1 per cent, the DAX 0.3 per cent and the CAC 40 0.4 per cent. European markets had calmed on Friday as investors decided that losses associated with the founding family of Banco Espirito Santo were unlikely to disrupt Portugal's financial system or revive broader worries about the bloc's weaker economies. The S&P 500 EMini contract was trading up 0.2 per cent on Monday, after the cash index ended with similar gains on Friday. The Dow closed up 0.17 per cent, while the Nasdaq added 0.44 per cent. Attention will be on shares in Citigroup, which sources said it would announce on Monday a deal to pay $7 billion to resolve a US government investigation into shoddy mortgage-backed securities. Many of the major US banks report earnings this week, along with big tech names including Intel Corp, Yahoo Inc, eBay Inc and Google Inc. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's two-day appearance in the US Congress from Tuesday will dominate global markets, which want above all to know how long rates might stay near zero once the central bank ends its asset-buying programme. The futures market rallied sharply last week as investors again pushed out the likely timing of a rate hike into the second half of 2015. Data from the US this week includes retail sales, industrial production and several housing indicators, according to Reuters.