HONG KONG: Asian markets and the euro surged Friday after EU leaders agreed on a $150-billion growth pact to shore up the eurozone, and opened the door to wider use of its rescue funds.
The euro jumped about 1.2 percent to $1.2598, after Rome and Madrid dropped their initial objections to back the pact following marathon talks at a crunch summit in Brussels.
EU president Herman Van Rompuy also announced a deal opening the door to allowing eurozone rescue funds to be used to help bring down borrowing costs of nations in trouble and directly recapitalise banks.
Hong Kong surged 2.27 percent, Tokyo jumped 1.50 percent, Sydney was up 1.62 percent, Seoul put on 0.91 percent and Shanghai added 0.71 percent.
Van Rompuy earlier announced that EU leaders had agreed to 120 billion euros of stimulus measures, but Spain and Italy held up the pact, demanding extra help to fight off market pressure on their economies.
The surprise move had threatened to derail the two-day summit that began Thursday and is aimed at paving the way for deeper economic integration and ending the long-running crisis.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy insisted that any deal on a package to stimulate output must be tied to immediate measures to bring down soaring borrowing costs.
But after more than 13 hours of intense talks, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, said the two nations had "lifted their reservations".
The debt crisis has now forced five countries -- Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Ireland -- to request aid.
But Van Rompuy said the eurozone would make a more "flexible" use of the rescue funds pot in order "to reassure markets and to get again some stability around the sovereign bonds of our member states".
Markets had earlier edged up following a Wall Street lead.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.20 percent, or 24.75 points, at 12,602.26 on Thursday, after having been off by more than 170 points during the session.
The recovery from early losses in the last hour of New York trade came amid short covering and hopes that EU leaders would agree measures to stem the crisis.
On oil markets, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August rose 75 cents to $78.44 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for August delivery gained 44 cents to $91.80.
As well as surging against the dollar, the euro also rose to 99.99 yen from 98.60 yen earlier Friday.
Gold was at $1,563.82 an ounce at 0330 GMT, compared with $1,569.79 an ounce late Thursday.