Stocks across Europe ended mostly lower on Friday, as retail and bank shares slumped into negative territory, and yanked the regional benchmark lower for a third straight session.

All three main U.S. stock-market benchmarks closed at records on Friday and booked weekly gains, as investor expectations grew for passage of Republican-backed tax-cut legislation.

Most major Asian indexes on Monday were given a boost by investor optimism that a plan to reduce corporate taxes would be passed stateside. Japan's Nikkei 225 added 1.47 percent as trading houses and banks rose. Tech and automaker blue-chips also saw gains, while several construction names declined. Toyota rose 2.86 percent, Sony gained 2.88 percent and SoftBank climbed 1.75 percent.