Key Asian markets ended mostly higher, today. So China's Shanghai Composite index and Singapore's Straits Times index gained 0.6 percent, each; while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.3 percent. But South Korea's Kospi ended marginally lower. The Japanese market was closed for a holiday.In Europe, the UK's FTSE-100 had gained 0.2 percent, but France's CAC-40 had dropped 0.7 percent and Germany DAX had slipped 0.5 percent in intra-day trade.Britain's pound was the big mover on the currency markets, falling against the dollar and the euro, in reaction to weekend comments from British Prime Minister Theresa May's that were interpreted as suggesting that the country could face a "hard Brexit" without access to the single market, when it leaves the European Union. And the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was just about in positive territory.