NEW YORK - WALL Street shares skyrocketed at the market opening on Monday, with the Dow up more than four per cent, after governments around the world took a series of steps to combat the financial crisis and shore up confidence.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 383.19 points (4.53 per cent) to 8,834.38 in the first trades.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 80.44 points (4.88 per cent) to 1,729.95 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 34.70 points (3.86 per cent) to 933.92.

Global stock markets moved sharply higher on Monday as governments pumped billions of extra dollars into banks crippled by the credit crunch.

Investor sentiment got a boost after the leaders of the 15-country eurozone, following the lead of Europe's financial giant Britain, agreed Sunday on a high-stakes joint bid to pull the world financial system back from the brink of collapse.

'The main message from the weekend meetings is that governments the world over seem to get the severity of the financial crisis now and are intent on taking extreme measures to improve matters,' said Mr Patrick O'Hare, analyst at Briefing.com.

'For now, things are moving in the right direction, both on the credit market and stock market fronts,' he said. -- AFP