Asian stock markets are trading sharply higher Monday, buoyed by good news from Italy, Greece, China and Japan.

Investors appear optimistic that new leadership in Italy and Greece will make progress on resolving Europe's debt crisis. Markets also responded positively to a new report that indicated Japan's economy has expanded for the first time in four quarters. And analysts said China's economy was responding well to policies intended to reduce lending, lower inflation and curb property prices.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 2.4 percent at the midday trading break, while Japan's Nikkei index closed up one percent.

Japan's Cabinet office released a preliminary report showing that the world's third-largest economy grew at an annualized rate of 6 percent in the July-September period, driven by exports. That would be the first good news for the Japanese economy since the earthquake and tsunami disaster in March.

Monday's market gains were spread throughout the region and helped offset a string of losses over the past two weeks. The gains followed strong market performances in Europe and the United States on Friday.