European markets in volatile trading as ECB said to buy debt

European stock markets rallied Monday morning after one of the worst sell-offs in recent years, buoyed by news that the region’s central bank was buying Spanish and Italian bonds.

Two days after Standard and Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating, fueling fears of global economic instability, European indexes all opened lower: In London and Frankfurt, the FTSE 100 and Dax indexes opened about 0.5 percent lower, BBC reports, but turned positive.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index rallied 0.6 percent, London's FTSE 100 Index was up 0.6 percent, Frankfurt's DAX rose 0.4 percent, Paris's CAC-40 Index rose 1.5 percent, Spain's IBEX-35 jumped 2.6 percent, and Italy's FTSE-MIB surged 3 percent.

News outlets credited a European Central Bank statement indicating it may buy Italian and Spanish government bonds in an effort to quell the euro zone debt crisis.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index, meanwhile, had lost 1.3 percent by mid-morning. Elsewhere in Asia, the Australian market was 1.1 percent down, at a two-year low, and Hong Kong fell 3.5 percent. Markets were also weaker in Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

(GlobalPost reports: Asia share markets fall as US credit downgrade spooks investors)

By midday, European markets had moved lower again, and analysts warned that markets would remain volatile, despite the G7 group of developed countries and the ECB vowing to take steps to support financial stability, the BBC reports.