HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian markets declined Monday, in spite of hefty gains on Wall Street, as banks such as Commonwealth Bank of Australia and DBS Group Holdings paced losses on worries about global financial markets.
Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index shed 0.9% to 3,384.40 and South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.9% to 984.95.
Singapore's Straits Times Index slipped 0.7% to 1,640.40 and Taiwan's Taiex gave up 0.9% to 4,135.82.
China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.2% to 2,073.99, reversing early declines.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index gained 0.8% to 2,602.51 after dropping for the five previous sessions.
Among financials, Commonwealth Bank stock fell 3.2% in Sydney and Shinhan Financial Group dropped 2.6% in Seoul, while DBS lost 2.1% in Singapore.
The drop came after Citigroup Inc. shares plunged 20% on Friday, and after The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. government was nearing an agreement to rescue the U.S. banking giant by helping to remove billions of dollars in toxic assets from its balance sheet. The agreement was under discussion and could fall apart, the report added.
Resource stocks advanced on higher crude-oil and gold prices, with BHP Billiton rising 1.7% and Santos advancing 3.5% in Sydney, while PetroChina Co. advanced 0.5% in Shanghai.
Shipbuilding stocks advanced in Seoul, with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. rising 1.7% while Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. surging 7.1%.
January crude-oil futures rose as much as 74 cents to $50.67 a barrel in electronic trading, after rising 51 cents to $49.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday. December gold futures climbed $11.70 to $803.50 an ounce recently, after rallying $43.10 to end at $791.80 Friday.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar bought 95.09 yen in Asia, compared with 94.94 yen Friday. The Australian dollar purchased $0.6263 versus $0.619 on Friday.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 6.5% to end at 8,046.42 Friday on word President-elect Barack Obama would nominate New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary. The S&P 500 ) jumped 6.3% to 800.03, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 5.2% to 1,384.35.
