UPDATE: Asian Shares Up; Beijing's Helping Hand Lifts China

SINGAPORE -- Asian stock markets were mostly higher Monday after Wall Street rose Friday as the pace of U.S. job losses slowed. Chinese shares were helped by supporting measures from Beijing while South Korean banks fell on tighter home loan regulations.

Chinese shares were helped by news Friday after the Shanghai market closed that Beijing was raising the maximum quota awarded to Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors to $1 billion from $800 million and significantly cutting the investment lockup period for some investors.

Shanghai's Composite Index was up 1.6% while the Hang Seng index was 1.5% higher.

"With the help of a slew of market-boosting measures in the past days, investor confidence is being restored," said Zhou Liu, analyst at Huatai Securities; still, "it's too early to say the stock market has reversed a downward trend, as liquidity worries remain," he added.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 1.0%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was 0.3% higher and South Korea's Kospi was flat, recovering from early weakness. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were about five points lower in screen trade.

China's banking stocks were leading the market higher on the recent supportive measures from Beijing. They also benefitted from news last week that the banking regulator planned to only gradually implement any changes to rules governing banks' capital adequacy ratio.

Bank of Communications and China Construction Bank were both 1.1% higher.

Financials in Hong Kong were rising on the measures recently announced in China. Analysts at ICBC International said the announcements from Beijing signaled the authorities' desire to support the A-share market, and that in turn would help Hong Hong stocks.

"The news of raising the QFII quota is not important by itself, but it contains a crucial message about government's intention to boost market sentiment ahead of the 60th anniversary (of the formation of the PRC on October 1)," the analysts said.

In Hong Kong China Life Insurance was up 1.3%, Ping An Insurance was up 2.3% while the Xinhua A50 China Tracker was up 0.6%.

Banks in South Korea were lower, taking a hit from news Friday the Financial Supervisory Service would impose tighter regulations on home loans, effective Monday, in a bid to curb property speculation in Seoul.

KB Financial Group was down 1.8% and Shinhan Financial was 0.7% lower while Woori Finance was down 1.0%.

Kumho Tire was up by its daily-limit of 15% as three domestic plants resumed operations. Unionized workers late Saturday accepted the company's offer of a wage freeze and no performance-based pay this year, in return for not cutting jobs.

Elsewhere in the region Singapore's Straits Times Index was up 0.1% while Malaysia's main index was 0.5% higher and Indonesia's main index was up 0.3%. Thai shares were up 0.9%. New Zealand's NZX-50 was 0.7% higher and Taiwan's main index was up 0.9%. Philippine markets were shut for a holiday.

Technology stocks in Japan were outperforming after the Nasdaq's strong showing on Friday while exporters were also higher as the dollar stayed above the Y93 level.

Advantest was up 1.8%, Canon was up 3.2% while Honda Motor was up 1.4% and Nissan Motor was 1.1% higher.

Toshiba was up 3.7% after the company said it was considering outsourcing part of production of cutting-edge large-scale system chips. The move was seen as positive to reduce risk in the segment, while press reports Friday that the company would bid for French state-controlled nuclear group Areva's power transmission and distribution equipment unit was also helping the stock.

Australian mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were up 0.1 and 1.2%, respectively. Both companies declined to comment on a report in The Australian newspaper that they were looking at a potential merger of their Canadian diamond operations.

Foreign exchange markets in the region were largely looking to equities to gauge players' risk appetite, after Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls and the weekend's meeting of G20 finance ministers yielded few surprises for the market.

"Discussions of regulations on bonuses in the financial sector suggest tighter rulings for us in the long-term. But there's no immediate concerns from the meeting for us, so players shrugged it off," said Tokyo Forex and Ueda Harlow senior dealer Masanobu Ishikawa.

The euro was gaining against the U.S. dollar, rising along with stocks, though major pairs were still confined to their well-established summer ranges. The single unit bought $1.4331 compared with $1.4301 late in New York Friday, it was buying Y133.54 compared with Y133.06. The dollar was at Y93.16 from Y93.03.

Japanese government bond futures were sharply lower, tracking the downturn in U.S. Treasurys Friday and the Nikkei's gains as investors pared holdings of their safe-haven assets. The lead September JGB futures contract was 0.34 points lower at 138.76.

Base metals were steady in Asian trade, with the London Metal Exchange expected to be quiet due to the U.S. Labor Day holiday.

London Metal Exchange three-month copper was at $6,325 per metric ton, up $55 in very low volume, from Friday's London kerb. Three-month lead was trading up $35 at $2,340 per ton.

Spot gold was down $2.25 at $992.25 per troy ounce. October Nymex crude oil futures were up 5 cents at $68.07 per barrel, after it ticked up six cents on Friday.