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HONG KONG — Most Asian stock markets climbed Tuesday, with oil companies gaining on the back of stronger crude prices, but Japanese shares sank to a new 26-year closing low amid ongoing worries about the global slowdown.

Hong Kong stocks led the region’s advance as reeling banking giant HSBC rebounded after the government said it was probing a massive drop in the company’s shares the day before.

Rises across the region followed Europe but ran counter to the US, where Wall Street continued to skid on fears about the depth of the recession in the world’s largest economy.

Investors, overcome with anxiety about financial companies and the global economy in recent weeks, were still on edge. The region’s stocks have fallen along with world equity markets as investors were
shaken by the possibility that the magnitude of the slowdown in Asia’s export-dependent economies is far greater than expected.

The toll on Asia from the slowdown in industrialized Western economies was underscored by signs of distress in China, where government figures showed Tuesday that consumer prices fell last month for the first time in more than six years amid the global economic crisis. The government also warned of another weak month for exports.

“Investors are getting a sense that we’re really in worse shape than we originally thought,” said Andrew Orchard, Asian strategist for Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong. “People are losing heart that there might not be an effective response and quick recovery.”

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average fell 31.05 points, or 0.4 percent, to 7,054.98 - the lowest closing level since Oct. 6, 1982 when the index finished at 6,974.35. Markets in Malaysia and the Philippines also were lower.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng added 346.33, or 3.1 percent, to 11,690.91, lifted by a 13.9 percent recovery in HSBC after its 24 percent tumble on Monday. South Korea’s Kospi added 1.9 percent to 1,092.20. Australian and Singapore benchmarks also rose.

Overnight in New York, a $41 billion merger between drugmakers Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough failed to generatesiasm among investors fixated on the worst recession in decades.

The Dow fell 79.89, or 1.2 percent, to 6,547.05. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 6.85, or 1 percent, to 676.53, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 25.21, or 2 percent, to 1,268.64. US futures pointed to modest gains on Wall Street. Dow futures rose 70 points, or 1.1 percent, to 6,598 and S&P500 futures were up 6, or 0.9 percent, to 681.90.

The pharmaceutical deal was also a damp squib for Asian pharma stocks. In Tokyo, Astellas Pharma Inc. lost 4.3 percent and Eisai Co. shed 6 percent. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Japan’s largest drug
manufacturer, lost 3.9 percent, extending losses after saying Friday that a key diabetes drug faced US regulatory delays.

Among the best performers in Asia were oil issues. Chines upstream producer CNOOC jumped 6.7 percent in Hong Kong.

Oil prices gained in Asian trade, with benchmark crude for April delivery up 57 cents at $47.64, as investors anticipated another production cut from OPEC. Overnight, the contract rose $1.55 to settle at $47.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currencies, the dollar fell to 98.62 yen from 98.90 yen. (AP)

Business, World