Around the World's Markets: Tokyo

JAPANESE STOCKS surged on a rally in high technology issues after an overnight rise on Wall Street. The Nikkei-225 rose 356.17 points, or 1.98 per cent, to close at 18,348.13.

Foreign buying was heavy ahead of December, when many foreign institutions plan to curtail trading activity to avoid possible problems related to the millennium computer bug. "Basically people are still long-term bullish on the Japanese market, so they're doing some of their buying today," said one analyst.