Asian Stocks Finish Higher

Asian stocks closed higher Tuesday on the heels of strong gains on Wall Street, boosted by the U.S. government's bailout of Citigroup.

Author:: Joseph Woelfel
Publish date:: Nov 25, 2008 3:48 AM EST

Updated from 12:29 a.m. EST

Asian stocks rose Tuesday, with markets in Japan finishing higher by 5.2% as Wall Street had a second strong day , boosted by the U.S. government's bailout of financial giant

Citigroup

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock closed higher by 5.2% to 8323.93. Markets in Japan were closed Monday for a holiday.

The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rose 3.4%, while the S&P/ASX 200 index in Australia finished up 5.8%. Markets in Australia closed before news broke that Melbourne, Australia-based

BHP Billiton

(BHP) - Get Report

had abandoned its multi-billion dollar bid for

Rio Tinto

( RTP).

Japanese officials in Tokyo hailed Washington's move on Citigroup.

Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano called the plan a "courageous decision" to save the massive global banking company, noting that the world's economy could be affected by Citigroup's fate, according to the

Kyodo

news agency.

All three of Japan's "megabanks" climbed, with

Mitsubishi UFJ

(MTU)

Mizuho Financial

(MFG) - Get Report

, and

Sumitomo Mitsui

finishing to the upside.

Stocks in Europe were trading lower. The FTSE 100 index in London fell 1.3%, while the DAX in Frankfurt declined 0.9%. Shares of Rio Tinto tumbled more than 30% after BHP, the world's largest mining company, withdrew its bid, citing current economic conditions.

Premarket futures in the U.S. were indicating a lower opening Tuesday for stocks on Wall Street.

S&P 500

futures fell 7.10 points to 840.90, and were 9.72 points below fair value.

Nasdaq

futures dropped 12 points to 1135, and were trading 19.51 points below fair value.

On Monday, U.S. stocks soared into the close after the government announced an aid package for Citigroup and President-elect Barack Obama unveiled key members of his economic team.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

, which had earlier climbed as much as 552 points, ended the day with a gain of 396.97 points, or 4.9%, at 8443.39. The S&P 500 surged 51.78 points, or 6.5%, to 851.81. Nasdaq gained 87.67 points, or 6.3%, at 1472.02.