Asian stock markets open after drop on Friday, Analyst

(23 Feb 2009) SHOTLIST Tokyo, Japan 1. Various of electronic board showing stock figures 2. Mid of index board 3. Close up of board 4. Wide of Tokyo Stock Change 5. Various of traders 6. Wide of trade floor 7. Wide of Tokyo Stock Exchange Hong Kong 8. Pan of Hong Kong Stock Exchange trading room 9. Mid of electronic board 10. Ticker 11. Various of traders 12. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Pedley, Managing director, LGT Investment Management (Asia) Ltd: "The main reason seems to be some strength coming through in the H-shares market, we are seeing China related shares doing very very well this morning. China banks are doing well. HSBC is down a little bit but if you strip out HSBC, the financial sectors are actually doing reasonably well, and I think this is based on the view the Chinese economy particularly the Chinese financial system is far sounder than the banking system in the US and also in Europe." 13. Wide of traders STORYLINE Asian stocks were mostly higher on Monday, with Hong Kong and South Korea's benchmarks up more than 2 percent, amid reports the US government might take a larger stake in troubled banking giant Citigroup to ease the financial crisis. Worries that major Western banks, crippled by growing losses from bad assets, might have to be nationalised sent markets sharply lower last week. But investors seemed relieved to have some clarity about the fate of Citigroup after the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the situation, said late Sunday that Citigroup Inc. is negotiating with authorities to increase the US government's stake in the teetering lender to as much as 40 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 291.26, or 2.3 percent, to 12,990.43 and South Korea's Kospi was up 25.39, or 2.4 percent, at 1091.22. In mainland China, the Shanghai benchmark added 0.4 percent. Markets in Taiwan and the Philippines also edged higher. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock average lost 29.12 points, 0.4 percent, to 7,387.26 as the yen strengthened against the dollar, thought recouped some its losses. Australian shares also fell. Oil prices were steady in Asian trade, with light, sweet crude for April delivery up 35 cents at 40.38 US dollar barrel. The contract edged down 15 cents to settle at 40.03 US dollar on Friday. In currencies, the dollar fell to 92.85 yen from 93.32 yen, while the euro strengthened to 1.2913 US dollar from 1.2825 US dollar. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...