RPT-GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia stocks drop as bank job cuts hit mood

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* Big job cuts at Citi remind investors of bank instability

* S.Korea won on track for 6th day of losses

* Some big investors are seeing good value

By Kevin Plumberg

HONG KONG, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Asian stocks fell on Tuesday after Citigroup cut 52,000 jobs in a dramatic move to save itself and downbeat policymaker comments reflected worsening economic conditions that will unlikely improve until well into 2009.

Despite relatively stable conditions in short-term credit markets, banks were struggling to contain climbing losses on bad loans, with Citi (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the second-largest U.S. bank, reducing 15 percent of its workforce and HSBC laying off an additional 500 staff in Asia after announcing 1,100 job cuts in September.

"Investors find it hard to invest in the financial sector unless signs emerge that the global economy has started to improve," said Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager of the equity marketing department at Daiwa Securities SMBC in Tokyo.

Rising unemployment is a painful reminder of how the brutal trend of slashing away risk in investor and institutional portfolios, which has been a key factor in erasing about $7 trillion from global equity market cap so far this year, has far-reaching consequences beyond just financial markets.