Hong Kong - Most Asian stock markets advanced on Monday, with South Korean shares gaining for the first time in four days as the government moved to shore up the country's banking system amid the global credit crisis.
Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average rose 1.1% to 8 941.50, and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong surged 4.3% to 15 185.91.
In South Korea, the Kospi climbed more than 2% after the government said it would provide up to $100bn to secure banks' maturing foreign currency for three years. The country's stock market and currency have spiraled lower in recent days as analysts questioned the ability of South Korean banks to acquire dollars to refinance loans.
Mainland China shares, meanwhile, trended downward, hurt by new government figures showing the country's economic growth eased to 9 in the third quarter of this year.
The reading, while still robust, fed into anxiety that deteriorating financial and economic conditions around the world were damaging Asian growth, and China's leaders pledged new measures to rev up the economy and cushion the blow from world credit problems.
Steelmakers gain
Shanghai's key index fell more than 0.7%.
"There was always this hope that China would pick up the slack for the US, but if China is seeing a slowdown, that could bash those hopes," said Singapore-based investment analyst Nicole Sze of Bank Julius Baer & Co, which manages about $300bn in assets.
In Tokyo, shares rose amid hopes for better-than-expected corporate earnings.
Panasonic jumped 6.6 % after the Nikkei business daily reported over the weekend that, helped by strong TV sales, the electronics giant would beat its interim operating profit forecast by more than ¥20bn.
Steelmakers Nippon Steel and JFE Holdings also gained on reports that they would be raising their profit forecasts for the year ending March 2009.
South Korean financials were mostly higher. Shinhan Financial gained around 5.6%, and KB Financial, the holding company for top South Korean lender Kookmin Bank, added almost 4%.
Elsewhere, resource shares helped lift Australia's benchmark more than 4%. New Zealand and Singapore also gained, while Taiwan shares lost ground.
The general upswing defied Friday's mixed performance on Wall Street, where the Dow fell 127.04, or 1.41 % to 8 852.22, as investors balanced an easing in credit markets with more bearish news about the housing market.
As US investors awaited a slew of earnings and economic reports this week, stock index futures on Sunday signalled a slightly higher open.
In oil, light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $1.94 to $73.79 in Asian trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained $2 in Friday trade.
The dollar traded at ¥102.73, up about 0.46, and the euro gained to $1.3485.
- AP