GLOBAL MARKETS-Cautious optimism on banks bolsters stocks

(Updates with U.S. markets, European close)

By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa

NEW YORK, April 2 (Reuters) - Stocks around the world gained on Wednesday as fears eased about the global credit crisis amid hopes that write-downs by banks could be coming to an end.

The optimism on the credit crisis also buoyed the dollar against the yen, as investors' appetite for risk grew and as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said growth should pick up as the impact of the U.S. central bank's aggressive interest rate cuts are felt.

Battered financial stocks have rallied in the last two days after Lehman Brothers Holdings LEH.N raised $4 billion of capital on Tuesday, quelling some speculation that the investment bank may be in trouble.

"Risk plays are being put back on," said Ron Simpson, director of currency research at Action Economics in Tampa, Florida. "A little bit of fear has gone out of the market on things that happened yesterday."

Lehman's share offering came as Swiss bank UBS announced $19 billion in write-downs, which has raised hopes for investors that banks were aggressively cleaning up their books.

Comments by Bernanke in congressional testimony on Wednesday that growth should pick up overshadowed his remarks that the United States could face a mild recession in the first half of 2008.

In U.S. stock markets, bargain-hunting drove financial shares higher as the credit fears ebbed.