At the close of trade on Friday, several Asian markets had surrendered the week's gains with Malaysia's key Composite Index tumbling 7.69 per cent as investors cashed out.

"Obviously, investors will be disappointed because they hate surprise elements and if the governments try to manage the market it is not taken very positively," said a regional strategist Nilesh Jasani with SG Securities in Singapore.

"The alarm bells always go off a bit when you hear about governments propping up the markets because you are never quite sure where the real floor is," said director of Aberdeen Asset Management Peter Douglas in Singapore.

Analysts said government-backed buying of shares would bring out sellers eager to liquidate their holdings at the expense of the regional authorities. It could also hurt the long-term investor outlook for the markets involved, as risk premiums for these markets would rise, they added.

"What is more, you are not addressing the real issues, you are just swirling money around in the economy," said a director Kevin Gin with Kleinwort Benson Securities. "It's taking money from out of one pocket and putting it into another," he said.

In recent weeks, several Asian governments either stepped into their battered share markets as buyers or announced their intention to use public funds to stimulate markets that are drastically weaker than they were before the Asian financial crisis flared up a year ago.

Hong Kong started things, repeatedly intervening in stocks and future markets after leader Tung Chee-hwa said the government would step in if speculators attacked the Hong Kong dollar and pushed interest rates higher.