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Asia leaps, follows Nasdaq
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October 20, 2000: 7:12 a.m. ET
Tokyo up 2.6%, Seoul, Taipei surge more than 6% as techs rally
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LONDON (CNNfn) - - Asia's top markets blasted higher Friday, with tech stocks across the region climbing after a bounce on Wall Street a day earlier.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index closed up 2.6 percent at 15,198.73, with rallies for blue-chip technology companies ending a three-day string of losses.  Electronics titan Sony jumped more than 7 percent, rival Fujitsu rose 8.3 percent and chipmaker NEC powered up nearly 8 percent.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index rose 4.3 percent to end at 15,044.53, with index heavyweight China Mobile (Hong Kong) bounding up 8.2 percent.
In Singapore, the Straits Times index climbed 2.1 percent, to 1,923.67, as Chartered Semiconductor jumping nearly 12 percent.
In currency markets, the yen weakened against the dollar on news that Kyoei Life Insurance, Japan's eleventh-largest insurer by assets, planned to file for court protection from creditors, becoming the second Japanese life insurer to fail in three weeks. The dollar traded at ¥108.50 late in Tokyo, up from ¥108.20 in New York trading late Thursday.
Tech results boost Nasdaq
Asian stocks rallied behind stellar gains in U.S. shares, led by bullish earnings reports from companies such as Finland's Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, and software companies Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW: Research, Estimates). The Nasdaq composite index jumped 7.8 percent, while the Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.7 percent to 10,142.98.
Japanese cell-phone operator NTT DoCoMo rose 3.7 percent, while its parent company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone rose 2 percent. NTT shares fell below ¥1 million on Thursday for the first time in 19 months ahead of an offering of up to 1.3 new million shares in November.
In the Internet sector, shares of Web investor Softbank jumped 6.9 percent.
Among Hong Kong technology stocks, Pacific Century CyberWorks rose 4 percent, paring its big decline in recent days. Concern has surrounded the outlook for earnings after the company agreed last week to sell control of its mobile-phone business to its Australian partner Telstra.
SmarTone Telecommunications surged 11.6 percent.
London-based international bank HSBC Holdings, a heavily weighted member of the Hang Seng index, rose 2.4 percent while its affiliate Hang Seng Bank gained 3.2 percent. Property firm Cheung Kong (Holdings) gained 3.5 percent while rival Sun Hung Kai Properties jumped 5 percent.
 Tech-rich indexes in Asia skyrocketed. South Korea's Kospi index rose 6 percent, with chipmaker Samsung Electronics soaring 15 percent, the maximum permitted one-day gain. Leading mobile-phone operator SK Telecom rose 11.7 percent while state-run Korea Telecom gained 5.1 percent.
The Taiwan Weighted index in Taipei tacked on 6.4 percent, supported by the government's confidence-boosting measures. The government halved the daily downward fluctuation limit for any equity of 7 percent through Nov. 7, and relaxed limits on overseas institutions' investment in Taiwanese stocks.
Chip stocks rallied, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and United Microelectronics each up by the 7 percent daily limit.
In Sydney, the S&P/ASX index closed up 1.4 percent at 3,235.8.
Elsewhere, the KLSE composite index in Kuala Lumpur rose 0.6 percent, Bangkok's SET index rose 0.2 percent. But Jakarta's JSX index fell 0.6 percent and the PHS composite in Manila ended down 0.5 percent. 
--from staff and wire reports
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