New York, Mar 20 (AP) Wall Street is opening mostly higher after regulators pushed together two huge banks over the weekend to build confidence in the struggling industry.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2 per cent shortly after the opening bell Monday.

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The Dow added 0.6 per cent and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3 per cent.

Much of the attention was still on banks, which may be cracking under the pressure of the fastest series of interest rate hikes in decades.

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Swiss banking giant UBS is buying rival Credit Suisse for almost USD 3.25 billion in a deal quickly put together by regulators. US bank First Republic fell again after another credit rating downgrade.

Hong Kong's main index slid 2.7 per cent. London, Frankfurt and Paris opened down more than 1 per cent. Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney also declined. Wall Street futures were off 1 per cent. Oil prices plunged more than USD 2 per barrel.

Swiss authorities on Sunday announced UBS would acquire its smaller rival as regulators try to ease fears about banks following the collapse of two US lenders.

Central banks announced coordinated efforts to stabilize lenders, including a facility to borrow US dollars if necessary.

Switzerland's share benchmark was down 1.8 per cent, while Credit Suisse's shares plunged 63 per cent and rival UBS, which is acquiring it, sank 14 per cent.

Investors worry banks are cracking under the strain of unexpectedly fast, large rate hikes over the past year to cool economic activity and inflation.

Prices of bonds and other assets on their books fell, fuelling unease about the industry's financial health.

“Investors are waiting to see where the dust settles on the banking saga before making any bold moves,” said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management in a report.

In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London lost 1.6 per cent to 7,220.62. Frankfurt's DAX fell 1.4 per cent to 14,555.79 and the CAC 40 in Paris lost 1.2 per cent to 6,842.36.

European banks' shares languished, with Deutsche Bank AG losing 3.7 per cent and Banco Santander SA slipping 1 per cent. Societe Generale lost 3.4 per cent and Credit Agricole fell 1.1 per cent.

On Wall Street, the future for the benchmark S&P 500 index was off 0.2 per cent. That for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4 per cent. On Friday, the S&P 500 lost 1.1 per cent. The Dow fell 1.2 per cent and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.7 per cent.

In Asia, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 2.7 per cent Monday to 18,879.20 after being down 3.3 per cent at one point on heavy selling of technology and financial shares.

In Hong Kong, HSBC Holdings plc dropped 6.23 per cent while Standard Chartered fell 7.3 per cent and Bank of East Asia gave up 4.5 per cent.

Japanese banks also were mostly lower, with Mizuho Financial Group shedding 2.3 per cent and smaller bank Resona Holdings down 3.7 per cent. In Australia, Macquarie Group sank 4.6 per cent.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo shed 1.4 per cent to 26,945.67.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5 per cent to 3,234.91 after the Chinese central bank on Friday freed up more money for lending by reducing the amount of their deposits commercial lenders are required to hold in reserve.

The Kospi in Seoul retreated 0.7 per cent to 2,379.20 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 lost 1.4 per cent to 6,898.50.

India's Sensex lost 1.3 per cent to 57,241.45. New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets also declined.

The Swiss government said UBS will acquire Credit Suisse for almost USD 3.25 billion after a plan for the troubled lender to borrow as much as USD 54 billion from Switzerland's central bank failed to reassure investors and customers.

US regulators have also tried to calm fears over threats to banking systems. The Federal Reserve said cash-short banks had borrowed about USD 300 billion in the week up to Thursday.

Separately, New York Community Bank agreed to buy part of failed Signature Bank in a USD 2.7 billion deal, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Sunday. The FDIC said USD 60 billion in Signature Bank's loans will remain in receivership and are expected to be sold off in time.

Traders expect last week's turmoil to lead the Fed to limit a rate hike at this week's meeting to 0.25 percentage points. That would be the same as the previous increase and half the margin traders expected earlier.

A survey released Friday by the University of Michigan showed inflation expectations among American consumers are falling. That matters to the Fed, which has said such expectations can feed into virtuous and vicious cycles.

In energy markets, benchmark US crude plunged USD 2.45 to USD 64.29 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell USD 1.61 on Friday to USD 66.74. Brent crude, the price basis for international oil, lost USD 2.67 to USD 70.30 per barrel in London. It retreated USD 1.73 the previous session to USD 72.97.

The dollar declined to 131.27 yen from Friday's 131.67 yen. The euro retreated to USD 1.0664 from USD 1.0681. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)