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Nikkei rallies nearly 3%
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November 27, 2000: 6:34 a.m. ET
Techs, telecoms up in Tokyo as U.S. election view solidifies, Nasdaq assists
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Tokyo's main market index rose nearly 3 percent on Monday, as Japanese technology stocks drew strength from Friday's gains for their U.S. counterparts, while Hong Kong's benchmark advanced on healthy bank and property shares.
The Nikkei 225 average in Tokyo jumped 405.04 points, or 2.8 percent, to close at 14,720.39. Consumer electronics maker Sony climbed 7.7 percent  after its PlayStation2 video games console got an enthusiastic response as it went on sale in Europe on Friday.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng closed up 225.86 points, or 1.6 percent, at 14,602.76. Sun Hung Kai Properties, one of the territory's major property developers, led gainers with an increase of 4.7 percent after announcing the sale of a luxury apartment development near central Hong Kong.
In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 ended up 0.7 percent at 3,303.2, as media powerhouse News Corp. jumped 4.1 percent, while Singapore's Straits Times index fell 0.2 percent to close at 1,979.52.
In Taipei, the Taiwan Weighted index rose 0.25 percent, while the best performing market in the region was Seoul's KOSPI, jumping 4.4 percent after heavyweight Samsung Electronics blasted up more than 11 percent amid signs memory chip prices are strengthening.
A strong performance by technology shares in the U.S. Friday underpinned Monday's gains in Asia. The Nasdaq composite climbed 5.4 percent, while the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.7 percent.
"The Nasdaq gains gave a gentle nudge higher to a market that was ready for a rebound after last week's losing spell," said Kazunori Jinnai, an equities general manager with Daiwa Securities SB Capital Markets. The Nikkei 225 average had fallen for five straight sessions before rising on Friday.
Sony rival Fujitsu ended up 8.8 percent, Toshiba rallied 6.5 percent and computer chip maker NEC rose 8.1 percent. But world No. 1 consumer electronics firm Matsushita Electric, the  parent of Panasonic, fell 2.3 percent.
Furukawa Electric soared 11.8 percent after Japan's top maker of fiber-optic cable said net profit soared nearly 10-fold on robust sales of optical and electronics products. It also raised full-year sales estimates for optical fiber products 18 percent from its previous forecast, to ¥218 billion ($1.96 billion).
Telecom stocks joined in the advance, as dominant mobile-phone operator NTT DoCoMo rose 1.1 percent, its parent company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone gained 1.1 percent and KDDI added 3.9 percent.
In the Internet sector, online investor Softbank gained 6.7 percent and Hikari Tsushin jumped 8 percent.
But Japanese bank stocks were softer. Sanwa Bank fell 1.1 percent, Sumitomo Bank shed 2.25 percent, while Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi slipped 1.25 percent.
Hong Kong stocks lifted
In Hong Kong, China Mobile, China's biggest mobile phone operator, rose 1.7 percent. Last week the stock shed 17 percent on reports that China may revise its telephone tariff system by forcing an end to the charging of mobile phone users for incoming calls.
Rival mainland mobile phone operator China Unicom fell 2.4 percent, announcing it was unaware of the possible changes to the tariffs, while SmarTone Telecommunications, also a mobile phone service provider, climbed 2.5 percent.
Banks and property shares fared well following a surprisingly solid report on Hong Kong's gross domestic product growth in the third quarter. Global bank HSBC Holdings rose 1.9 percent, subsidiary Hang Seng Bank rose 2.7 percent Dao Heng Bank added 2.8 percent.
Legend Holdings, China's biggest computer maker, rose 2.6 percent, while Acer, a top computer maker in Taiwan, rallied 6.3 percent in Taipei.
Among other hardware companies, in Singapore, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing rose 0.7 percent. Fellow chip-sector company Venture Manufacturing added 0.6 percent.
But Overseas Union Bank dropped 2.4 percent and electronics company Omni Industries shed 2.5 percent.
Elsewhere on the Pacific Rim, the KLSE composite index in Malaysia added 2.5 percent, the SET in Bangkok fell 0.2 percent, the BSE Sensex in Mumbai rose 2.6 percent, the PHS composite in Manila fell 0.6 percent and Jakarta's JSX index fell 0.7 percent.
--from staff and wire reports 
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