NEW YORK, Oct 13, 2008 (AFP) - Wall Street shares skyrocketed at the market opening Monday, with the Dow up more than four percent, 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 percent) to 8,834.38 in the first trades.

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