Asian stock markets mostly rose on Monday as financial shares extended gains on hopes of further U.S. interest rate cuts, but some technology stocks eased after Dell Inc's disappointing outlook.

Casting a shadow on the tech sector, Dell shares tumbled as much as 15 percent on Friday on concerns that rising costs would crimp profitability for the world's No. 2 personal computer maker.

At 0029 GMT, Tokyo's Nikkei average had climbed 0.6 percent, while MSCI's measure of other Asia Pacific stocks was little changed.

Last week, the MSCI index rallied 5.1 percent, snapping four straight weeks of losses on growing expectations of lower U.S. rates. The Federal Reserve meets next week to discuss monetary policy and a rate cut is widely expected.

Investors will take a wait-and-see stance before the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting, so big movements in markets look unlikely, said Samuel So, an analyst at Samsung Securities.

South Korea's KOSPI edged down 0.1 percent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index gained 0.3 percent.

Bank stocks mostly rose across the region, further buoyed by optimism over a proposed rescue for struggling U.S. homeowners.

Both the U.S. Treasury and U.S. mortgage industry leaders are close to finalizing a plan that would freeze interest rates for subprime borrowers before they reset sharply higher.

Citigroup's Tokyo shares jumped 5.4 percent, Japan's top lender Mitsubishi UFJ gained 2.1 percent, National Australia Bank rose 1.7 percent, but South Korea's Kookmin Bank lagged, easing 1.1 percent.

South Korean technology stocks were also under some pressure after Dell's slide. Samsung Electronics and memory chip maker Hynix Semiconductor both lost more than 2 percent.

On Wall Street, gains in bank stocks helped lift the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average up 0.5 percent, but the fall in Dell weighed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index, which closed 0.3 percent lower.

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