Asian stock markets were seen fairly higher early on Monday, with an earnings downgrade done by Australian retailer Woolworths weighing on Sydney.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average climbed up by half a percent Australia's S&P/ASX 200 went up by 0.2%, Kospi index of South Korea gained 0.3% and New Zealand's NZX-50 also added 0.1%.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures got lowered by five points in screen trade.

Worries about further tightening steps coming from Beijing continued to hold back demand in many markets. The state-run China Securities Journal said in a commentary on Friday that the first rate increases in this year might happen in times of the Lunar New Year holiday in early February.

Gabriel Gan, senior vice president, equity sales at AmFraser in Singapore, stated that there might be some technical bounce back on the way but equity markets are still likely to be pressurized by fears of more rate increment in the country that's the main thing that's on the mind right now and has stayed for the last two trading days, even if there's a bounce back. He went on to say that any gains are going to be pretty much restricted.

In SYDNEY, the market grappled to gain traction as investors argued with an earnings downgrade from Woolworths, the grocery and general-merchandise retailer.

Its stock declined by 2.4%, after the firm reduces its guidance for full-year earnings growth to a range of five to eight percent down from its previous forecast of eight to eleven percent growth, pointing out concerns about confidence levels of consumers, as well as costs linked with the recent New Zealand earthquake and Australian floods. In the sector, other stocks also declined Wesfarmers lost 1.1%.