Asian markets rose on Thursday as European leaders announced a deal to tackle the region's crippling sovereign debt woes. Japan's Nikkei jumped 2%; South Korea's 1.5%; Hong Kong's Hong Seng rallied 3.3%; China's Shanghai Composite index gained 0.3% and Singapore's Strait Times index advanced 2.8%.European shares too surged to a 12-week high today after euro zone leaders agreed to boost the region's bailout fund to 1 trillion euros and struck a deal with private banks and insurers to accept a 50 percent cut on Greek bonds. The private sector voluntarily agreed a cut in its bond investments, to reduce Greece's debt burden by 100 billion euros, while around 250 billion euros of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) will be leveraged to produce a headline figure of about 1 trillion. Key indices, London's FTSE-100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC-40 jumped between 2% and 3.9% in intra-day trade on Thursday.