Asian stock markets opened dramatically higher Monday morning, rebounding from last week's losses.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average and South Korea's Kospi Index each rose more than three percent early in the trading session, and Taiwan's main stock index was up by four percent after 15 minutes of trading.
U.S. and European stocks rebounded Friday immediately after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut the interest rate it charges on short-term loans to large commercial banks. Today was the first trading opportunity since then for Asian investors, whose stock holdings had suffered big losses through most of last week.
The U.S. central bank's interest-rate cut was intended to buffer the impact on world financial markets of a housing-loan crisis in the United States.
Analysts say the Federal Reserve appears to have succeeded in easing investors' fears that a credit crisis could hurt economic growth and profits.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP , Bloomberg and Reuters.