  We prove optimality principles for semicontinuous bounded viscosity solutions
of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations. In particular we provide a representation
formula for viscosity supersolutions as value functions of suitable obstacle
control problems. This result is applied to extend the Lyapunov direct method
for stability to controlled Ito stochastic differential equations. We define
the appropriate concept of Lyapunov function to study the stochastic open loop
stabilizability in probability and the local and global asymptotic
stabilizability (or asymptotic controllability). Finally we illustrate the
theory with some examples.
