Asian shares rise on Euro debt talks

Asian shares surged on Monday after weekend meetings of European leaders resulted in good progress on tackling a regional debt crisis that has threatened to plunge the world economy into recession.The eurozone wants to beef up its 440-billion-euro ($610 billion) rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, to convince markets it has the means to protect highly indebted nations such as Italy and Greece.However, they announced few concrete details from the weekend meetings, vowing to reveal all at a second summit on Wednesday.Investors were also keeping an eye on the yen, which reached a record post-war high of 75.78 against the dollar on Friday, before the greenback regained some ground to 76.15 yen in afternoon trade Monday.The surge prompted Japans finance minister to call for decisive steps to tame the currencys rapid rise amid worries that a strong yen will hammer Japanese exports.Tokyo closed 1.90 percent, or 165.09 points, higher at, 8,843.98, while Sydney jumped 2.73 percent, or 113.1 points, to 4,255 and Seoul rose 3.26 percent, or 59.94 points, to 1,898.32.Hong Kong climbed 4.14 percent, or 746.10 points, to end at 18,771.82 while Shanghai added 2.29 percent, or 53.06 points, to close on 2,370.30. Both markets were lifted by improved manufacturing data from China.