Asian shares slipped slightly on Monday, while gold and oil jumped amid reports of a prospective framework for new bond purchasing scheme by the European Central Bank (ECB).

On Monday, spot gold reached a fresh 4-month high of $1,676.45 per ounce, spot silver jumped to a near four-month high of $31.17 per ounce.

Supply concerns pushed oil futures up by more than $1 on Monday, while both U. S. crude and Brent jumped by 1.6 per cent to $97.69 and $115.38 per barrel.

Speaking about the market conditions, Bob Takai, GM of Sumitomo Corp.'s energy unit, said, "Commodities which are highly sensitive to monetary policy easing are underpinned by such speculation, so it's hard to sell in markets such as gold, silver and oil where it's easier for speculative money to flow in."

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan slipped 0.2 per cent, while Seoul shares suffered a loss of 0.3 per cent, driven by a decline in Samsung Electronics Co.'s shares following a U. S. jury verdict in favor of Apple. It may be noted here that Samsung and Apple are locked in several patent infringement battles in a number of countries, including the U. S., where a jury recently ruled in favor of the Cupertino firm.

Nifty futures were trading flat in early morning trading, as pathetic economic data all around has not been met with a strong policy response from policymakers.