* Nations more coordinated in response to crisis
* Yen edges higher as caution rules
* Damage to credit markets needs time to fix
(Updates prices)
By Kevin Plumberg
HONG KONG, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Most Asian stock markets rose
on Monday after policymakers around the world took increasingly
bold steps to rescue the financial system, including
guaranteeing bank desposits and taking stakes in banks.
However, the yen rose against the euro and U.S. dollar and
gold also edged up, highlighting investor caution and an
unwillingness to dive back into risk taking just yet,
especially with credit markets still barely functioning.
U.S. stock futures <SPc1> rose 4 percent, pointing to a
higher open on Wall Street, after the U.S. government said it
would inject capital directly into financial institutions, and
European leaders hatched a plan that included buying bank debt,
both of which may help free the flow of precious credit.
Japan's stock market plunged 24 percent last week, twice
what it lost in the week of the 1987 crash, while U.S. stocks
dropped 18 percent, their biggest weekly decline ever.
"The market was looking oversold so it was ripe for a
bounce, it just needed a bit of good news," said David Cassidy,
chief equities strategist at UBS in Sydney.
Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index <> was up 4.8
percent, clawing back some of last week's 16 percent decline,
on a blanket guarantee of all bank deposits from the Australian
government. []
The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> climbed 3.75 percent, the biggest daily rise
since Sept. 19. The index slumped by more than a fifth last
week.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index <> rose 3.2 percent in
choppy trade after losing 16.2 percent last week. China Mobile
shares <0941.HK> were the biggest boost to the index, and large
bank stocks rallied as the morning session ended.
South Korea's KOSPI <> rose 3.1 percent, after closing
on Friday at the lowest since July 2006, and Singapore's
Straits Times index <.FTSTI> climbed 2 percent after last week
hitting its lowest since December 2004.
Japan's markets and the U.S. Treasury market were closed
for holidays on Monday.
The euro dropped 0.6 percent from late U.S. trade last week
to 134.93 yen <EURJPY=R> but pulled back from an early high of
137.65 yen reached on the relief rally in stocks. The euro sank
to a three-year low of 132.15 yen on Friday.
The dollar fell 0.6 percent to 100.03 yen <JPY=> and fell
as low as 99.56 yen, near a six-month low of 97.91 yen hit on
Friday.
The price of spot gold <XAU=> rose 2.4 percent to $867.60
an ounce, helped by the weaker U.S. dollar against the euro,
after tumbling 7 percent on Friday as investors closed out of
positions and stayed on the sidelines.
(Additional reporting by Miranda Maxwell in MELBOURNE; Editing
by Lincoln Feast)
