The European Central Bank (ECB) has decided to buy unlimited volumes of short-term eurozone government bonds from debt-ridden countries, including Spain and Italy, in secondary markets.

ECB President Mario Draghi said in a news conference at Frankfurt on Thursday that the purchase of such bonds will block distortion in the bond market.

Draghi said the bank will buy short-term bonds that mature in one to three years in the secondary market alone. He stressed that the act of buying such bonds falls under the bank’s entrusted rights.

Following Draghi’s announcement, key stock prices in Europe surged more than two percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the New York Stock Exchange jumped nearly two percent.