HONG KONG - Asian markets kicked off the new decade on a high on Monday as dealers were buoyed by upbeat manufacturing data from China, while Tokyo was boosted by news of an extended credit line to Japan Airlines.

And the new year saw the introduction of a new trading system in Tokyo as the stock exchange tries to keep ahead of its regional rivals following a series of technical problems in recent years.

By noon, the Nikkei was 1.17 percent higher, while Sydney was up 0.32 percent. Hong Kong was 0.29 percent lower, while Shanghai began the day 0.20 percent up.

There were also gains in Seoul, Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.

But Manila ended down 1.56 percent in quiet trade.

Singapore was also 0.10 percent off due to profit-taking after hitting a 17-month high last week.

"The mood on the first day of trading this year is good," Kenji Shiomura, market analyst at Daiwa Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Japan Airlines (JAL) shares soared 37 percent after the government Sunday agreed to double a state-funded loan to the cash-strapped carrier to ?200 billion ($2.2 billion).

JAL shares had plunged 23.9 percent on the last trading day of 2009, sinking at one stage to a record low, on fears Asia's largest airline might file for bankruptcy protection.

Exporters were also helped by the yen weakening against the dollar.

The greenback gained to 93.06 yen in Tokyo morning trade from 93.00 yen in New York late Thursday.

The euro fell to 1.4260 dollars from 1.4323 dollars, and to 132.68 yen from 133.26.

In China, sentiment was boosted by news that the Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 56.6 percent in December from 55.2 in November, according to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange's next-generation trading platform, called "arrowhead", can process orders in 0.005 seconds, much faster than the previous technology and on a par with the systems in New York and London.

Singapore announced its economy shrank 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the previous three months. However, the drop was not as big as expected and GDP actually rose 3.5 percent year-on-year.

Gold opened lower in Hong Kong, trading at 1,095.00-1,096.00 US dollars an ounce, compared to Thursday's close of 1,102.00-1,103.00 dollars.