Most Asian stock markets retreated Monday as worries about Citigroup Inc. weighed on financial shares, but pared some losses after the US government unveiled a plan to rescue the troubled banking giant.
A foreign currency dealer walks past screens displaying the Kospi stock price index (L) and exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and the Korean won at the Korea Exchange Bank in Seoul November 24, 2008. [Agencies]
Investors largely shrugged off Friday's rally on Wall Street, where major benchmarks surged more than 6 percent as US President-elect Barack Obama appeared ready to tap the New York Federal Reserve chief Timothy Geithner as the next treasury secretary.
Overshadowing the news were concerns about the fate of New York-based Citigroup, whose shares plunged last week. Under the plan unveiled late Sunday in the US, Washington would take a $20 billion stake in the bank and guarantee hundreds of billions of dollars in risky assets, moves aimed at shoring up a huge financial institution whose collapse would destabilize further the global financial system and US economy.
Citigroup failing "is the last thing investors want to see," said Alex Tang, head of research at Core Pacific-Yamaichi. "That would have a major impact on not only the US market, but on the global market."
Investors were also awaiting a slew of data about housing, domestic production and consumer confidence in the US that will shed more light on the health of the world's largest economy, Tang said.
In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index lost 150.68 points, or 1.2 percent, to 12,508.52, by the afternoon break.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 recovered from early losses to gain 0.3 percent. South Korea's Kospi pared losses after the Citigroup news broke, but then resumed its slide to close 3.4 percent lower at 970.14.
Trading in Japan was closed for a national holiday.
Chinese shares finished 3.67 percent lower on Monday, declining for a third straight day on profit-taking after an expected lending rate cut didn't materialize over the weekend.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 72.33 points, or 3.67 percent, to 1,897.06. The Shenzhen Component Index dropped 245.15 points, or 3.65 percent, to 6,466.19.
Losers outnumbered gainers by 764 to 101 in Shanghai and by 638 to 92 in Shenzhen.
Financials around the region fell on jitters over Citigroup.
Top European bank HSBC was off nearly 2 percent in Hong Kong, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia sank 2.9 percent. KB Financial Group Inc., the holding company for top South Korean lender Kookmin Bank, slipped 4.2 percent.
Oil prices rose in Asian trade, with light, sweet crude for January delivery up 37 cents to $50.30 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore.
In currencies, the dollar weakened to 95.42 yen from 95.91 yen, while the euro rose to $1.2643 from $1.2587.
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