Europe leads world stock rally on debt deal

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- World stocks surged Thursday after European Union leaders hammered out a bond deal to fix the Greek debt crisis.

European markets closed higher. London's FTSE 100 (UKX) rose 2.9%, while the DAX (DAX) in Frankfurt surged nearly 5.4% and the CAC 40 (CAC40) in Paris soared 6.3%.

European Union leaders announced an agreement Thursday to solve the debt crisis, including a deal with private business leaders to take a 50% loss on Greek bonds.

The agreement is intended to provide some stability and alleviate the insecurity that has long plagued European markets. In particular, the measure takes aim at the Greek debt crisis, instability in the banking sector and an insufficient bailout fund.

The news provided a huge lift for European bank stocks, but some of them lost their momentum. BNP Paribas surged 12%, but was down 2% at the close. Credit Agricole soared 15%, but closed 1% lower. Societe Generale jumped 12% and managed to hold its gains

U.S. bank stocks also benefited. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) rose 7% in midday trading, Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) rose 9% and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) rose 7%.

The news fueled U.S. markets, providing a lift of more than 2% to the Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures.

Asian stocks closed higher. The Hang Seng (HSI) in Hong Kong jumped 3.3% and the Nikkei (N225) in Tokyo rose 2%.

The Japanese markets got an extra boost after the policy board of the Bank of Japan, battling the recent yen rally, eased monetary policy by increasing the size of its asset purchase program to about ¥55 trillion from ¥50 trillion.