If you ask average South Koreans if they invest in stocks, the answer may be no. But if you ask if they are in tujashintak, the Korean version of mutual funds, most will give you a resounding yes.

“I am not really cut out for money-making, so I decided to invest indirectly in stocks through this product,” said a housewife in Seoul who would give only her last name, Jang, to protect her familys confidentiality. “One-twentieth of my salary goes to the fund every month, and the idea is to set aside the money and then forget about it.”

This laissez-faire attitude toward investing is helping shape one of the most mature and resilient equity markets in Asia, experts on Asian stocks say.

Today in South Korea, more than 50 percent of households subscribe to the program, wherein a set amount of money is deducted monthly from a savings account and channeled into a stock fund. In just a few years, such regular savings programs, or RSPs, went from a trickle of money to a steady torrent as the number of accounts rose to 11 million last summer from just 2.3 million in 2005.

When the U.S. credit crisis began to shake stock markets worldwide, more Koreans hastened to buy into the savings programs. Since July, the number of RSP accounts has kept growing, hitting 15.2 million in January. Assets rose from 64.4 trillion won, or $64.6 billion, from 38 trillion won last summer.

“Investors, particularly retail investors, were not spooked by the bearish stock market,” said Youngmin Kim, head of research at the Asset Management Association of Korea, which compiled the accounts data. “Instead, they felt that the bearish stock market is a perfect time to purchase funds.”

South Koreans newfound belief in long-term stock investing, experts say, reflects a new culture.

“The equity culture in Korea is undergoing changes that could be described as the most meaningful in its history,” said Cheol Seong Lee, chief marketing officer at Mirae Asset Investments, the leading manager of mutual funds in South Korea, with about 30 percent market share.

Jaechil Kim, a researcher at Korea Securities Research Institute in Seoul, agreed. “Before 2002, the mutual fund market in Korea was premature,” Kim said. “Most investors invested in stocks directly, but now they invest through a mutual fund. That is a big change in Korea.”

It was individuals savings that sustained the stock rally in South Korea from 2006 through to mid-2007, said Yoshimi Takahashi, representative of E*Trade Korea in Seoul. “Share prices rose sustainably, and since the beginning of last year, more investors began piling in to participate directly to the market in a big way.”

The rest of Asia is playing catch-up, said Henry Chan, a fund manager at Baring Asset Management in Hong Kong. “It is not only in Korea, but Asia in general: You have a lot of savings built up almost everywhere, be it Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia, Singapore,” he said. “So the more local money is going into the local equity markets. And it is reflected by Asian fund managers themselves. In the old days, you take the long haul to the U.S. and to Europe to do the marketing, but more and more, Asian fund managers are doing marketing across the region.”

By contrast, since the subprime loan crisis began to rock the markets in Japan, sending the Nikkei index tumbling nearly one-third from around 18,000 in August, individuals left the market in droves, resulting in a net selling in 2007 of shares worth 2 trillion, or about $20 billion. The share of Tokyo Stock Exchange trading volume from individuals dropped to 26 percent, from 38 percent two years ago.

Joong Hyun Kim, a market strategist at Goodmorning Shinhan Securities in Seoul, said individuals owned 25 percent of the listed South Korean shares, up from about 15 percent four to five years ago. While they do the buying, foreigners have been doing selling.

Being the only steady purchasers, individuals stock ownership will climb higher, Kim said, and that could put a reliable floor to the faltering South Korean market. “I think the credit risk of the American financial market has most been reflected in the current Korean market, which is near the bottom level,” he said.

Steady household money flowing into the market has not only limited the downside in South Korea but has smoothed out the big swings that have characterized other Asian markets.

“With the money continuously flowing into the market, that is one factor that has reduced market volatility,” Kim said. “And that money stays in the market longer. This habitual investment in stock is now a key factor in the Korean stock market.”

MADRID: The Spanish government approved Friday \18 billion of emergency tax cuts and spending to shore up an economic expansion undermined by a slumping housing market and the global credit shortage.

The measures, to be enacted immediately, will provide a \400 tax rebate to all workers and pensioners, part of \10 billion of outlays this year. The remaining \8 billion is earmarked for next year.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is tapping a budget surplus to cushion the effect of a slowing economy, which the International Monetary Fund forecasts will ease by more than half this year to 1.8 percent. House prices in Spain fell in real terms for the first time in 10 years in the first quarter after tripling in the past decade.

“The economic and budget policy of this government in the last four years has allowed us to accrue a surplus in the public accounts,” the deputy prime minister Marнa Teresa Fernбndez de la Vega said at a press conference in Madrid. “This lets us take measures to stimulate the economy, to reinvigorate job creation and to help people and families in greatest difficulty.”

The measures will add 0.2 or 0.3 percentage point to economic growth this year, Finance Minister Pedro Solbes said at the same press conference.

The global credit crunch stemming from the collapse of the U.S. housing market is exacerbating Spains housing slump by restricting funds available for banks and home buyers. Mortgage lending fell 28 percent on the year in January.

“If this episode is prolonged, its effects on the Spanish economy may be significant, since it is an economy in which external financing is a basic element of its growth,” the Bank of Spains governor, Miguel Бngel Fernбndez Ordусez, said this week. “That the real estate cycle matured at the same time as international financial tensions emerged has been particularly unfortunate for our economy.”

One measure included in the stimulus package ends the fees charged by banks and notaries to extend a mortgage, making it cheaper for home owners to lower their payments by stretching out the life of the loan. The government also abolished the wealth tax and announced a \200 million program to help unemployed construction workers find jobs.

Home sales imploded in the first quarter, declining 23 percent on the year. That left the stock of unsold homes in Spain at more than 600,000, according to Alberto Espelosнn, a strategist at Ibercaja Gestiуn.

The Ministry of Public Works has accelerated its tendering process already this year, Solbes added. The ministry awarded \6 billion of contracts in the first quarter, almost double the amount in the year-earlier period.

As it scrambles to avoid defeat in its battle with Microsoft, Yahoo may try to put a little more time on the clock.

Microsoft, whose offer for Yahoo is now worth $41.2 billion, was preparing to escalate its takeover fight by starting a proxy contest next week. But in an effort to delay that move, Yahoo is considering a plan to postpone its annual meeting, people close to the company said Tuesday.

The maneuver comes as Yahoo has stepped up merger and joint venture talks with AOL, a unit of Time Warner, these people said.

Microsoft had been preparing to nominate a slate of directors to the board of Yahoo by next Thursday, the deadline for mounting a proxy contest. If Yahoo postpones its meeting, something it could announce as early as this week, the company could buy time to continue seeking out and evaluating alternatives.

Under the laws of Delaware, where Yahoo is incorporated, a public company cannot go more than 13 months without holding an annual meeting. Yahoo held its annual meeting last year on June 12, and has not yet set a date for the meeting this year.

The delay could leave room for Microsoft to reach a negotiated, friendly deal with Yahoo, which would be made much more difficult if Microsoft decided it needed to pursue the proxy contest. On the other hand, Yahoos continued maneuvering might just harden Microsofts resolve.

Yahoos investors could take the view that by postponing the meeting the company is disenfranchising its shareholders. The move could lead to lawsuits from Microsoft or from Yahoo shareholders.

“The most likely scenario probably is that Yahoo is trying to buy more time,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia.

The additional time could give Yahoo a chance to find other partners or try to persuade Microsoft to raise its offer before the fight between the two companies escalates further, Tobias said.

This delay tactic was used in a major takeover battle in Silicon Valley, when BEA Systems postponed its shareholder meeting in the face of Oracles bid. Less than a month after it announced the delay last December, BEA agreed to be acquired by Oracle.

Spokesmen for Yahoo and Microsoft declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Yahoo, which has been canvassing for other possible suitors and has held talks with News Corp. and Google, appears to be focused on a possible transaction with AOL, people involved in the talks said.

It is unclear what shape a deal could take. AOL is far too small to buy Yahoo, but a joint venture or merger of the two properties - which would combine AOLs strong position in the display advertising market and Yahoos display and search advertising business - could be seen as an alternative to a sale to Microsoft.

A deal between Yahoo and AOL is being pushed by Google, which has a 5 percent stake in AOL, these people said.

Most analysts believe it is unlikely that a combination with AOL or News Corp., or a business deal with Google, would persuade Yahoo shareholders they would fare better than by taking Microsofts offer.

The cash-and-stock bid was initially $44.6 billion but has declined along with Microsofts stock.

Just last week, AOLs chief executive, Randy Falco, appeared to dismiss talk of a deal with Yahoo and seemed to be reveling in the drama. “I hope they beat each others brains out over search and leave the display market to us,” Falco said. “I think its a mistake. But I think Napoleon said never interrupt your enemy when theyre in the middle of making a mistake.”