Several Asian countries are looking at spending billions of dollars on shares to support sliding stock markets.

The MSCI Asia Pacific index is down 13 per cent so far this year and ended the month on Monday with its worst first-half performance since 1992.

Government officials in Taipei, where the local market dropped to a five-month low on Friday, said the cabinet had called on government pension and insurance funds to buy more domestic shares and to hold their investments for a longer period.

Central bank officials and ministers met over the weekend to discuss measures to boost investor confidence and the possible use of the T$500bn ($16.4bn) National Stabilisation Fund designed to support markets in times of volatility caused by non-economic events.

In Vietnam, it is reported that the stock exchange and securities regulator was setting up a stabilisation fund to support a market that has lost nearly two-thirds of its value this year.

In Pakistan, the Karachi Stock Exchange is coming under increasing pressure to use a Rp30bn ($442m) stabilisation fund set up last week for use in "volatile circumstances".