Asian stocks hit back slides

GLOBAL MARKETS/ STOCK REPORT

Asian stocks rose for the first time in three days after Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics joined a plan to create a free cell-phone operating system and Goldman Sachs upgraded Japan's consumer lenders.

Samsung and LG, members of the Open Handset Alliance formed by US-based Google, advanced on speculation that new technology will boost handset sales. Acom Co, Japan's No. 2 consumer-finance company, gained as did shareholder Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

"The Asian story remains pretty good and that's why we're seeing a recovery," said Shane Oliver, who helps manage the equivalent of $103 billion at AMP Capital Investors in Sydney.

Alibaba.com almost tripled on its first day of trading in Hong Kong, making it Asia's second-biggest Internet company after Yahoo Japan.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia Pacific Index added 0.4 per cent to 166.24 as of 6:41 pm in Tokyo, after sliding 3.9 per cent in the previous two sessions. A measure of financial shares that includes banks and property stocks was the biggest gainer among the benchmark's 10 industry groups.

EUROPE
European stocks advanced for the first time in four days after Swiss Reinsurance, Bayer AG and Marks & Spencer Group reported profit that beat analyst estimates.

Ericsson AB climbed after Goldman Sachs recommended buying shares of the world's largest producer of wireless networks. Total SA led energy stocks higher after Credit Suisse Group upgraded the stock and oil prices increased.

The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index added 0.4 per cent to 378.94 as of 8:20 am in London. The Stoxx 50 also gained 0.4 per cent, while the Euro Stoxx 50, an index for the euro region, rose 0.2 per cent.

The Stoxx 600 dropped 2.9 per cent in the previous three days on concern that more banks may follow Citigroup and Merrill Lynch in increasing their estimates of losses related to sub-prime mortgages.

US
US stock-index futures rose on speculation that share-price declines have been exaggerated and that non-financial stocks are cheap relative to the earnings outlook.

Google jumped in Europe after Bernstein raised its share-price forecast by 18 per cent. MasterCard, the second-biggest payment-card network, rose after Deutsche Bank AG advised investors to buy the stock.

Oilfield services company Schlumberger gained after making an offer for part of Norwegian petroleum seismology company Easter Echo.

Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures, expiring in December, added 4.7 points to 1,510.10 as of 8:59 am in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 38 points to 13,593 while Nasdaq 100 Index futures increased 6.25 poits to 2,219.

Stocks dropped on Monday to the lowest in two weeks after Citigroup, the largest US bank by assets, said it will report as much as $11 billion in additional write-downs.

The S&P 500 has lost 3.1 per cent this month. Non-financial industry companies have, on average, reported a 7.3 per cent increase in third-quarter profits from a year ago, as compared with a 0.7 per cent decrease for all companies listed on the index.