The dollar was up more than a yen in early European dealings after Japanese authorities intervened to buy dollars, delivering an early Christmas present to those fearful of further yen strength.

London's blue-chip FTSE 100 index, which on Thursday closed at a new peak on a surge in the telecom and drug sectors, climbed to a new intra-day record within minutes of opening today.

But trading was sporadic as the index hit 6803.1 points, eclipsing Thursday's intra-day peak, lifted mainly by gains in heavyweight banking group HSBC and drugs firm SmithKline Beecham. Just across the Channel, media, high-tech and telecoms stocks powered the Paris bourse up nearly one per cent in early deals to new highs but activity was slow in the pre-holiday session.

The CAC-40, which ended up 1.96 per cent for its 36th closing high of the year on Thursday after another buying frenzy, climbed nearly one per cent to 5792.63 just after the open.

The Frankfurt bourse was closed.Overnight, champagne corks were popping along Wall Street as the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 finished the day in record territory.

But analysts in New York said that trade the day before a holiday is normally strong with volume tending to be light as many traders take an early vacation. "You have got the Santa Claus action," said Arthur Hogan, Chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co.

Technology issues were still Wall Street's stocking stuffers of choice with the likes of Big Board-listed Hewlett-Packard up 5-9/16 to 112-1/2 and Nasdaq's Dell Computer Corp. up 2-3/8 to 52-11/16. Dell was Nasdaq's most active stock.

Hong Kong stocks, too, vaulted to record levels. The Hang Seng Index closed at an all-time high, imitating overseas markets' record-setting rallies and propelled by galloping local technology shares.

"It was totally unexpected. No one expected the index to shoot up to its all-time high when there was not much news in the local market, apart from the Nasdaq surge overnight," said Stanley Ng, head of research at Mansion House Research.

Currency markets also saw some excitement. The yen shed more than one percent against the dollar after the Bank of Japan intervened to curb the Japanese currency's strength in thin, pre-Christmas trading.

The Bank of Japan bought dollars for yen from around 102 yen, senior Ministry of Finance official Haruhiko Kuroda confirmed on Friday. Tokyo bankers also said they detected buying later in Tokyo trade on Friday, from around 102.50 yen.