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HONG KONG — Asian stock markets rose Thursday, with Tokyo’s index up nearly 2 percent, as gains on Wall Street offset alarming new signs the region’s economies were slowing faster than expected amid plummeting demand for their goods.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average gained 150.1 points, or 1.9 percent, at 8,051.74 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.8 percent to 12,804.94. South Korea’s Kospi added 1.1 percent to 1,116.23, while markets in mainland China, Australia, Singapore and India also gained.

Despite the modest rises in most markets, trade was relatively cautious amid a maelstrom of bad news about the region’s biggest economies.

China’s economic slump deepened in the fourth quarter, with growth sliding to 6.8 percent from 9 percent the previous quarter and 10.6 percent in the first quarter. For the full year, China’s economy expanded by 9 percent - its slowest yearly growth since 2001.

In Japan, exports plunged at a record pace of 35 percent in December, marking a third straight month of decline, the government reported. South Korea’s economy shrank in the fourth quarter, contracting from the previous year for the first time in a decade, when the country was reeling from the Asian financial crisis.

The data, worse than many expectations, together highlighted the damage being inflicted on Asia as demand for cars, electronics, clothes and other goods evaporates in the US and Europe, among the hardest hit regions in the downturn.

“Clearly our region is really plunging into a steep recession,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist for SJS Markets in Hong Kong. “We are going through a big slowdown.”

Asian governments have been scrambling to prop up their economies, slashing interest rates and rolling out massive spending plans. Japan’s central bank, while Thursday holding its key interest rate at 0.1 percent, said it would examine outright purchases of corporate bonds in the future to help capital-starved companies.

But Asia’s heavy dependance on overseas consumers may dilute the effects of its various stimulus measures, making a quick turnaround in the region increasingly unlikely. In China, for example, analysts have cut forecasts for 2009 economic growth to as low as 5 percent.

Still, sentiment in Asian trade was buoyed by Wall Street, where stocks advanced overnight on positive news from US companies.

Investors seemed relieved by a recovery in banking stocks, beaten down by double-digit percentages the previous day on worries about the financial industry’s debt-loaded balance sheets. PNC Financial Services Group Inc., which owns bank National City Corp., and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. both reported profits.

Stronger-than-expected results from IBM Corp. added to the positive sentiment. Apple Inc.’s earnings, released after the market’s close, beat forecasts as well.

The Obama administration’s upcoming measures to boost the world’s largest economy were also in focus overnight. Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner told lawmakers that passing the stimulus plan was essential.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 279.01, or 3.5 percent, to 8,228.10.

Broader stock indicators also advanced, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 index up 35.02, or 4.4 percent, to 840.24.

Wall Street futures were slightly higher, pointing to opening gains in U.S. trade Thursday. Dow futures rose 20 points, or 0.2 percent, to 8,198 and S&P500 futures gained 2.2 points, or 0.3 percent, to 839.

Oil prices, which have moved in tandem with equities in recent months, were steady in Asian trade, with light, sweet crude for March delivery inching higher by 2 cents at $43.57 a barrel. The contract jumped $2.71 overnight to settle at $43.55 a barrel on the New York Stock Exchange.

In currencies, the dollar gained to 89.26 yen, up from 89.13 yen, and the euro was virtually unchanged at $1.3003. (AP)

Business, World