The Asian stock markets are expected to open high on Monday following upbeat news from Europe - although profit-taking may set in later in the day, as the regional bourses have already had the chance to react to the news.
Meeting in Brussels, the European leaders agreed to make use of Eurozone's bailout funds to recapitalize the region's banks directly once an effective single supervisory mechanism is established, relieving the governments of the burden of bailing out troubled lenders.
Earlier during the summit, the leaders approved a 120 billion-euro package to promote growth in the debt-stricken Eurozone as well as across the broader 27-nation European Union.
The markets also may consider some mixed economic data from the United States as consumer sentiment deteriorated by more than estimated in June, although Chicago-area business activity saw a modest acceleration in growth.
The major U.S. averages finished sharply higher on Friday as the Dow jumped 277.83 points or 2.2 percent to finish at 12,880.09, while the NASDAQ soared 85.56 points or 3 percent to end at 2,935.05 and the S&P 500 surged 33.12 points or 2.5 percent to 1,362.16.
The major European markets also moved sharply higher on Friday. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped 1.4 percent, while the Swiss market spiked 1.34 percent and the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index soared 4.3 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively.
The Asian markets were sharply higher on Friday as Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 2.19 percent, while South Korea's KOSPI spiked 1.91 percent, Indonesia added 1.8 percent, Taiwan soared 1.76 percent, Japan's Nikkei jumped 1.5 percent, China's Shanghai Composite climbed 1.35 percent, Australia spiked 1.2 percent, Singapore's Straits Times gathered 1.11 percent, Malaysia collected 0.4 percent and Thailand added 0.07 percent.
The Hong Kong stock market will be closed on Monday for SAR Establishment Day. It will re-open on Tuesday.
by RTT Staff Writer
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