* Cautious optimism before long weekend on fate of Lehman
* MSCI Asia ex-Japan index rebounds from 23-month low
* Lehman puts itself up for sale-sources
(Adds European stock futures, details)
By Kevin Plumberg
HONG KONG, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Asian stocks edged up on
Friday, with shares outside Japan rebounding from a 23-month
low on reports Lehman Brothers had put itself up for sale,
suggesting a smaller risk of a Wall Street meltdown spreading
to the region.
The optimistic market mood spilled over to Europe, with
Eurostoxx 50 <STXEc1> futures, Germany's DAX futures <FDXc1>
and French CAC 40 futures <FCEc1> up between 1.2 and 1.4
percent.
Oil prices crept above $101 a barrel, supported by fears
Hurricane Ike could disrupt U.S. production, but crude remained
on course to fall below the psychologically important $100
level, especially with the euro falling to a one-year low
against the dollar this week.
Gains in bank stocks such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
<8306.T> and South Korea's largest lender Kookmin Bank
<060000.KS> outpaced the broad indexes on optimism Lehman,
whose shares plunged more than 40 percent on Thursday, would
find a suitor by this weekend. []
The U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve are reportedly
engineering the sale of Lehman through a consortium of private
firms, the Washington Post said. []
"We have reports about Lehman's buyout talks today, and
that is positive because that means the number of ailing
entities will decrease through an industry realignment," said
Masaru Hamasaki, senior strategist at Toyota Asset Management
in Tokyo.
Japan's Nikkei share average <> finished up 0.9
percent, rebounding from a six-month low.
The MSCI index of other Asia-Pacific stocks <.MIAPJ0000PUS>
climbed 1.3 percent after closing at its lowest since October
2006 on Thursday.
South Korea's KOSPI <> rallied 2.4 percent, led by
shares of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS> and POSCO
<005490.KS>, the world's No. 4 steelmaker.
Major Asian markets will be closed on Monday for holidays.
Many investors were in wait-and-see mode ahead of any
developments with Lehman, though in the thick of the financial
crisis, any progress has usually been followed with signs of
trouble at other institutions.
Indeed, Washington Mutual Inc <WM.N>, the largest U.S.
savings and loan, was downgraded on Friday to below
investment-grade status by Moody's Investors Service, which
cited constraints to tapping capital markets.
Impatience with the financial sector's persistent problems
as well as a global economic slowdown that hit Europe and Japan
hard has led to a reduction in risk taking in just about every
asset class. This so-called deleveraging boosted to the U.S.
dollar as U.S. investors bring some money back home from
abroad.
U.S. CURRENCY ATTRACTS INVESTORS
Institutional investors in particular have been ploughing
money back into the dollar.
In the last month, cross-border flows into the dollar have
been in the 94th percentile, meaning they have been higher only
6 percent of the time, according to State Street Global
Markets, which tracks 15 percent of the world's tradeable
assets.
In the wake of U.S. bailout of government sponsored
enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this week,
analysts at State Street expect foreign central banks to
continue to add to their immense foreign exchange reserves and
recycle the proceeds into Treasury debt.
"The GSE bail out adds a whole new dimension to global
imbalances. It is also perhaps no coincidence that the one
asset that has been rising in recent days is the U.S. dollar,"
they said in a note.
The euro was largely unchanged at $1.4015 <EUR=> after
hitting a one-year low around $1.3880 the prior session.
The dollar was slightly higher against the yen, at 107.30
yen <JPY=>.
However, the euro edged up 0.1 percent to 150.37 yen
<EURJPY=>, after tumbling to a two-year low on Thursday.
(Additional reporting by Aiko Hayashi in TOKYO; Editing by
Anshuman Daga)
