Asian markets were mixed yesterday as investors tracked developments in the China-US trade talks, while Chinese online retail titan Alibaba surged almost eight per cent on its Hong Kong debut.

While the mood remains upbeat across trading floors that a partial tariffs agreement will eventually be signed, there is a sense of unease about the lack of detail from both sides.

Yesterday, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke by phone to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, state media said.

The two sides "discussed solving issues regarding each other's core concerns, reached consensus on properly resolving related issues, and agreed to maintain communication on remaining issues in consultations on the 'phase one' deal," China's official Xinhua news agency said, without providing more details.

The news came after Beijing said at the weekend it would hike penalties on violations of intellectual property rights and also look at lowering the threshold for criminal punishments of those who steal IP. The IP issue is a major sticking point for the United States in the discussions and agreement on it is seen as key to their success.

The signals from the two economic giants are growing increasingly positive and observers said there is a need for both sides to nail the partial deal, which is part of a wider agreement.

"There are more incentives now on both sides to get this trade deal done compared to when the trade talks first fell apart earlier this year because the Chinese economy has slowed down much more since then and in the US, Trump is facing his 2020 election campaign," Amy Xie Patrick at Pendal Group told Bloomberg TV.

 Street's three main indexes ended at new records Monday.

However, Asia struggled to extend its own advances from the day before. Hong Kong dropped 0.3 per cent, Singapore and Seoul fell 0.1 per cent, and Jakarta and Manila shed 0.3 per cent.

However, Tokyo rose 0.4 per cent as the trade optimism lifted the dollar against the yen, providing a boost to Japanese exporters, while Shanghai was flat.

Sydney and Wellington both climbed 0.8 per cent, while there were also gains for Mumbai, Bangkok and Taipei.

"Optimism is rising that a phase one trade deal could be agreed before December 15 when new US tariffs are expected to kick in," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

"However it seems much more likely that these could well be deferred once more, with an agreement more likely to occur sometime in the New Year, if we get one at all."