Asia stocks shake off Wall St blues, sterling steady before Brexit talks

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian stocks rose on Monday, shaking off Wall Street's uninspiring performance on Friday, while sterling was mostly steady after a van rammed into pedestrians in London even as markets braced for the start of Brexit talks. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5 percent. Japan's Nikkei added 0.6 percent. Australian shares climbed 0.5 percent and South Korea's KOSPI jumped 0.6 percent. Chinese shares advanced 0.55 percent after data showed home prices rose 10.4 percent in May from a year ago, although slowing from April's 10.7 percent gain. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.85 percent. Commodity Trading Tips

"Generally, the environment still remains fairly positive for risk appetite," said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in Singapore. "Now that the (Federal Reserve interest rate decision) is out of the way, the focus, for this region anyway, will remain on whether the economic environment will stay positive and the recovery will continue." On Friday, Wall Street ended mixed, with energy names offsetting declines in consumer stocks, which were clobbered by Amazon.com's $13.7 billion deal to buy upscale grocer Whole Foods Market. The S&P 500 index closed flat, the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Astrology and Numerology Trading Tips