AKIPRESS.COM - Asian stocks drifted Monday as investors largely shrugged off a weekend vote in which Crimeans opted to leave Ukraine and join Russia, U-T San Diego reported today.

The Japanese yen got a boost after preliminary results showed an overwhelming number of voters in the Ukrainian region approved splitting off and joining Russia in Sunday's vote.

Fears about regional instability did not translate strongly into investor pessimism in Asia, as the vote unfolded according to expectations. Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped as much as 0.4% in early trading, fueled by the yen's recent gains, but later trimmed those losses, edging 0.1% lower to 14,308.49.

The dollar, which has lost about 1.7% against the yen in the past week, was trading at 101.48 yen compared with 101.30 yen late Friday. A stronger yen makes goods from Japanese exporters such as Sony and Canon pricier overseas.

South Korea's Kospi edged up 0.2% to 1,924.51 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.3% to 21,467.35. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.2% to 5,321.

The Chinese Shanghai Composite rose 0.5% to 2,013.83 after officials announced on the weekend that exchange rate controls would be modestly eased. It's the latest step in an eventual plan to let the yuan float freely.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.3% to end Friday at 16,065.67. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 0.3% to 1,841.13 and the Nasdaq composite dropped 0.4% to 4,245.40.

The euro rose to $1.3902 from $1.3898.

Oil prices rose as well. Benchmark crude for April delivery gained 24 cents to $99.13 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 69 cents to settle at $98.20 on Friday.

Meanwhile, Russian stocks traded higher in early action on Monday, MarketWatch reported.

The blue-chip MICEX index rose 1% to 1,253.86. But last week saw the index close with a 7.4% loss, as tensions rose ahead of the Crimea vote. That largely matched the prior week's loss. The index hasn't seen weekly losses of that magnitude since September 2011, according to FactSet Research.

The Russian ruble weakened some against the dollar USDRUB +0.07%, easing 0.3% to 36.66 rubles, and eased 0.2% to 50.90 against the euro EURRUB +0.27%.