Asian markets were up smartly in early trades today.Japan's Nikkei rallied 187 points to 17,741. Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 535 points to 21,004. The Straits Times index advanced 52 points to 3499. The Seoul Composite index was up five points at 1609, and the Taiwan Weighted index added nine points to 8040.China's Shanghai Composite index moved up 10 points to 4032.
