HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Most Asian markets rebounded strongly in afternoon trading Friday, with financials such as Mizuho Financial Group and HSBC Holdings leading the bounce after a string of recent declines.
The recovery came in the wake of a Wall Street Journal report that Citigroup was weighing the possibility of auctioning off pieces of the financial giant or even selling the company outright.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped as low as 11,814.81 before bouncing sharply to end the morning session at 12,851.78, 4.5% higher.
South Korea's Kospi, which dropped during the previous eight sessions, jumped 3.2% to 978.72.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei rebounded as well and was recently up 0.9% at 7,770.50, while the broader Topix index climbed 0.3% to 784.83.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.7% to 3,408.60 and New Zealand's NZX 50 index gave up 2.5% to 2,578.10.
Singapore's Straits Times index gained 0.9% to 1,628.23, while Taiwan's Taiex rose 1.8% to 4,164.01.
China's Shanghai Composite, which sank more than 4% at one point during the session on reports that mainland unemployment was likely to worsen in the wake of the global economic crisis, was recently down 0.9% to 1,966.92.
"We're looking forward to four quarters of economic data declining at an increasing rate. We're also seeing more layoffs even in the region here ... that is the corporate equivalent of what consumers globally are doing -- look at what they've got and where they can save money," said Benjamin Collett, head of hedge-fund sales trading at Daiwa Securities SMBC in Hong Kong.
Regional detail
Banks led the regionwide gains, with HSBC Holdings gaining 4.5% and China Construction Bank soaring 6.7%, reversing early declines.
In Tokyo, Mizuho Financial Group bounced 10.1%, while Commonwealth Bank of Australia bounced 4.4% in Sydney.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar bought 94.55 yen, compared with 95.01 yen late Thursday.
Overnight on the New York Mercantile Exchange, December crude-oil prices dropped below $50 a barrel Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, ending down $4 at $49.62. The contract expired overnight. January crude-oil futures, which closed at $49.42 a barrel on the Nymex, slipped as much as 82 cents to $48.60 a barrel in electronic trading.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index slumped 6.7% to 752.44, a closing level it hasn't seen in more than 11 years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 5.6% to 7,552.29 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 5.1% to 1,316.12.
