LONDON (CNNfn) - Asia's main markets ended Friday with a huge surge as investors shifted money into traditional blue-chip stocks, taking their cue from a record point gain on Wall Street's Dow Jones industrial average Thursday. Hong Kong's benchmark index rose for the first time this week, its 4.4 percent leap recouping half of the loss from the four previous sessions.
Japanese stocks rose for the second straight day Friday as confidence in the technology and Internet sectors returned after a bout off heavy selling. The benchmark Nikkei Average of 225 leading shares rose 313.09 points, or 1.6 percent to close at 19,566.32. For the week as a whole the index fell about 1 percent.
Softbank Corp., an Internet investor and darling of the so-called "new Japan" shares, surged 5.9 percent to 105,000 yen, and Hikari Tsushin gained 5.4 percent to 98,500 yen. Investors also shifted their attention to traditional high-tech stocks with solid earnings, such as NEC, which gained 2 percent to an all-time high of 2,980 yen.
Broker Nissho Iwai soared 19.6 percent to116 yen after agreeing to establish an e-commerce joint venture with a unit of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, Japan's largest telecommunications company. NTT shares fell 2.8 percent to 1.41 million yen.
Consumer electronics giant Sony fell 1.3 percent to 26,640 yen after the company said it was modifying software used in its PlayStation2 video game console to prevent the machine's digital video disk player being used to watch DVDs sold overseas.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose a massive 723.99 points to close at 17,082.99, as investors increased their exposure to blue-chip stocks. The index ended higher for the first time this week as jitters over Saturday's presidential election in Taiwan were put aside. The Hang Seng ended the week down 4.2 percent from the previous Friday's close.
Hong Kong's largest bank HSBC Holdings soared 4.6 percent to HK$90.00, accounting for almost a third of the Hang Seng's gain, and Dao Heng Bank Group gained 5.6 percent toHK$31.80.
Property conglomerate Cheung Kong (Holdings) rose 5.4 percent to HK$106.00 while its subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa gained HK$3.00 to HK$132.50.
Among telecommunication stocks China Telecom (Hong Kong) soared 7.2 percent to HK$67.25, while Hong Kong's No. 3 mobile phone company SmarTone Telecommunications, which fell in the previous sessions after disappointing results, rebounded 6.5 percent to HK$30.30.
Singapore stocks advance
In Singapore, the Straits Times index rose 41.84 points, or 2.07 percent, to 2,063.95.
City Developments led gains among property shares, rising 15 percent to S$7.95. Banking shares, which have lagged the market ahead of possible U.S. interest-rate rises, were also back in fashion. Southeast Asia's biggest bank DBS Group rose 6 percent to S$21.20. Overseas Union Bank rose 4 percent to S$7.80 after it posted record profit for 1999, in line with analysts' expectations.
In Sydney, the All Ordinaries Index rose 23.2 points, or 0.7 percent, to 3,203, well off its high for the day of 3,252.2.
Media giant News Corp, which had been on a losing streak all week, rose 3.4 percent to A$21.73. Among the "old economy" stocks, construction and finance company Lend Lease climbed 2.5 percent to A$21.73 and retailer Coles Myer gained 1.7 percent to A$6.65.
Wall Street provided a boost for Asia's smaller markets. Malaysia's main index rose 1.5 percent to close at 934.78, Thai shares gained almost 1 percent to end Friday at 399.74, the Manila market gained 0.68 percent and Taiwan stocks closed 0.93 percent higher as the state intervened with a T$500 billion stock buying fund. South Korea's benchmark index closed 1.71 percent higher at 855.57.
In the U.S. Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial average soared a record 499.19 points, or more than 4.9 percent, to 10,630.60. The Nasdaq Composite, following three sessions of double-digit losses, rose 134.66, or 2.9 percent, to 4,717.76, after falling as much as 127 points earlier in the session.
In currency markets, the yen weakened to 105.86 to the U.S. dollar from 105.38 in late trading in New York Thursday. 
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