HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asia stocks edged up on Friday and Japan's Nikkei average posted its highest close in six weeks as investors bet a raft of government measures will help the global economy recover next year.The dollar and yen slipped as portfolio managers shifted some funds into riskier assets while preparing to close their books for the year.Japan's Nikkei average pushed up 1.6 percent as some battered shares such as Toyota Motor Corp got a lift from such portfolio window-dressing despite data showing a record plunge in industrial production in November.Japanese governments bonds climbed, driving the 20-year yield to a five-year low, on regular month-end buying from pension funds and other data pointing to a return of deflation next year.Investors have largely shrugged off the array of bleak reports showing the financial crisis dealt a severe blow to the global economy at the end of 2008, instead looking ahead to see how government efforts to revive growth will work next year."Past experience shows that stock prices tend to gain around the year-end and the start of the year on hopes for the coming year. But it's not as if investors can keep buying this time around as the outlook for the economy is murky," said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Shinko Securities.Japanese Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano told Reuters in an interview that Tokyo may take more fiscal spending measures if economic conditions worsen further, on top of a stimulus package totalling 75 trillion yen ($829 billion).Trading activity was light with many financial markets closed following Christmas Day. Markets in Hong Kong and Australia were closed. Many markets in Europe will remain closed, even as U.S. markets will reopen.The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.1 percent but was down 2 percent this week and 55 percent this year, on track for the biggest yearly loss in its 20-year history.Taiwan's TAIEX index inched up 0.3 percent after the government pledged to help flat-screen television makers in the latest effort to prop up the country's tech industry. AU Optronics, the world's No. 3 LCD maker, jumped 2.5 percent.South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.9 percent on worries that companies would issue slim year-end dividends.The dollar and yen dipped against most major currencies. The euro edged up 0.3 percent to $1.4050 , while single currency rose 0.3 percernt to 127.10 yen . As the dollar slipped, gold edged up $4 an ounce to $848 .JGBs gained across the board, extending a winning streak since the Bank of Japan cut rates to 0.1 percent last week, boost its monthly purchases of government bonds and said it was taking more steps to alleviate the freeze in credit markets.The yield on benchmark 10-year JGBs dipped a basis point to 1.200 percent, holding near a 3-1/2-year low. The 20-year yield dropped 6.5 basis points to 1.755 percent and was down 16 basis points this week.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank stocks yielding close to 10 percent might tempt investors in a market where such income is rare, but the payouts are likely to plummet if not disappear.While yields on many bonds, especially those issued by the U.S. Treasury, are approaching zero, regional banks like Marshall & Ilsley Corp and SunTrust Banks Inc have payouts of 9.96 and 7.6 percent, respectively.But the yields are under pressure as banks grapple with a growing recession and a severe downturn in the residential and commercial real estate markets and come under increasing pressure to seek government bailout money for lending.Many U.S. banks are poised to slash their common stock dividends next year. In some cases, dividends could even drop to zero, analysts said.The pain will likely be widespread. Regional banks Regions Financial Corp and SunTrust Banks Inc are likely to have dividends that exceed their net income next quarter, making dividend cuts almost a certainty, Scott Valentin, analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, wrote in a research note on Tuesday.Earlier this month, Fox-Pitt Kelton said a dividend cut was imminent at Marshall & Ilsley, given its out-sized exposure to residential construction and home equity loans.'DIVIDEND HOLIDAY'It may make sense for regulators to press banks to stop paying dividends entirely, Valentin wrote."We would favor a national bank dividend holiday for the next two to three years," he wrote.With taxpayers now providing key support to many banks under the government's $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program, cutting dividends may be a political necessity."If you took taxpayer money, and you didn't even earn your dividend, to be using taxpayer money to pay your dividend would look really bad politically," said Tanya Azarchs, an analyst at Standard & Poor's.Citigroup Inc agreed in November to cut its quarterly dividend to a penny a share after receiving $20 billion from the U.S. government. At the beginning of 2008, the bank paid a dividend of 54 cents a share per quarter.Other major banks are slashing dividends. Bank of America Corp cut its payout by 50 percent in October. Last month, UBS estimated the bank would slash it again to boost its shares and preserve capital.Regional banks are not immune. Last week, Fifth Third Bancorp trimmed its common stock dividend. On Tuesday, Washington Federal Inc cut its quarterly dividend by 76 percent, while Horizon Financial Corp suspended its dividend. The list goes on."Regional banks tend to follow one another. My guess is you would see a whole bunch of regional banks cutting dividends early in '09," said Mark Fitzgibbon, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill. "I would look at markets where we have the most difficult economic issues, like Southern California, like South Florida, the Upper Northeast region, the Michigan area."Spokespeople from Regions, Marshall & Ilsley, Bank of America, and SunTrust Bank all declined to comment.Financial institutions globally are estimated to have suffered $1 trillion in writedowns and credit losses since the credit crisis began.Barclays Capital analyst Jason Goldberg estimated banks' loan losses would keep mounting in 2009 and would not peak until late next year or, more likely, the first half of 2010. This would force banks to set aside more money to cover those losses.FBR analyst Valentin said, "So far the damage has been in construction and residential mortgage, or even capital markets. We think in 2009, it's going to be in commercial real estate, commercial and industrial loans, and consumer loans.SEARCH HERE WHAT U WANT

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's gold futures edged lower on Friday as rupee gained making the dollar-quoted yellow metal cheaper, analysts said.Gold may move in a very narrow range of 12,945-13,100 rupees for the day, said Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, director at Comtrendz Risk Management.Some bullish bias would prevail in gold for next week on the back of a weaker dollar, said Thiagarajan, adding gold may test the resistance of 13,200-13,250 by next week.Overseas gold was mostly steady on Friday, holding near $845 an ounce amid views that the dollar would remain under pressure given the grim outlook of the U.S. economy, but activity was slow due to the holiday season.The benchmark February gold last traded lower by 58 rupees at 13,016 rupees per 10 grams after it gained by more than 2.5 percent for the last four trading sessions.The rupee edged higher on Friday on expectations the local stock market may open firm, but gains may be pared following the dollar's gains against some currencies such as the yen.Open interest for Feb gold on MCX was at 14,709 lots, down from 14,823 recorded on Wednesday. Volume on Wednesday was 37.5 kgs.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI, Hindi: भारतीय रिज़र्व बैंक) is the central bank of India, and was established on April 1, 1935 in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. The Central Office of the Reserve Bank was initially established in Calcutta but was permanently moved to Mumbai in 1937. Though originally privately owned, RBI has been fully owned by the Government of India since nationalization in 1949.Duvvuri Subbarao who succeeded Yaga Venugopal Reddy on September 2, 2008 is the current Governor of RBI.The Reserve Bank of India was set up on the recommendations of the Hilton Young Commission. The commission submitted its report in the year 1926, though the bank was not set up for nine years.The Preamble of the Reserve Bank of India describes the basic functions of the Reserve Bank as to regulate the issue of Bank Notes and keeping of reserves with a view to securing monetary stability in India and generally to operate the currency and credit system of the country to its advantage.It has 22 regional offices, most of them in state capitals.System of Note issue RBI Maintains Minimum Reserve System for Note issue.This means that RBI can issue any amount of currency notes provided it keeps the minimum statutory limit of Rs.10000000 billion crores worth Gold and Securities.
[edit]Regulator and supervisor of the financial system Prescribes broad parameters of banking operations within which the country's banking and financial system functions.Objective: maintain public confidence in the system, protect depositors' interest and provide cost-effective banking services to the public. The Banking Ombudsman Scheme has been formulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for effective redressal of complaints by bank customers.Manager of exchange control Manages the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.Objective: to facilitate external trade and payment and promote orderly development and maintenance of foreign exchange market in India.Issuer of currency Issues and exchanges or destroys currency and coins not fit for circulation. Objective: the main objective is to give the public adequate supply of currency of good quality and to provide loans to commercial banks to maintain or improve the GDP. The basic objectives of RBI are to issue bank notes, to maintain the currency and credit system of the country to utilize it in its best advantage, and to maintain the reserves. RBI maintains the economic structure of the country so that it can achieve the objective of price stability as well as economic development, because both objectives are diverse in themselves.Developmental role Performs a wide range of promotional functions to support national objectives. To incubate or establish financial institutions of national importance, for e.g: NABARD, IDBI,ICICI ICICI has ceased to be an institution of national importance with its conversion into a Bank and it now finds a place among private sector banks. Hence this may be deleted from the illustrative list Related functions Banker to the Government: performs merchant banking function for the central and the state governments; also acts as their banker. Banker to banks: maintains banking accounts of all scheduled banks. Owner and operator of the depository (SGL) and exchange (NDS) for government bonds. There is now an international consensus about the need to focus the tasks of a central bank upon central banking. RBI is far out of touch with such a principle, owing to the sprawling mandate described above.