Bourses pushed ahead strongly yesterday as sentiment received a boost from the latest US inflation data and investors scrambled to buy TMT shares.

Paris shot ahead to an all-time high on what brokers described as rampaging demand for technology stocks. The CAC-40 index rose 188.24, or 2.8 per cent, to 6,813.66.

France Telecom raced ahead in heavy trading volumes, rising to €142.70 before closing 10.2 per cent or €13.10 higher at €141.6 in 7.2 million shares traded.

Bouygues, Lagardere and Thomson CSF all jumped by about 5 per cent as technology-related shares, boosted by a rising Nasdaq, raced to make amends for recent relative underperformance.

New time buying for the third quarter explained much of the upturn in demand. Among CAC-40 components, trading volume was almost 55 million shares.

Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux rallied €4.50 to €171.4 after the utility denied plans to merge with Germany's Eon. Carrefour, which released strong results on Thursday, added a further 90 cents to €83 after Lehman Brothers upgraded its earnings estimates.

Frankfurt also pressed ahead on the strength of technology shares. Deutsche Telekom jumped €2.55 or 5.9 per cent to €45.80 and SAP and Siemens put on €16.89 to €300.89 and €5.20 to €185.70 respectively.

Financials were in the thick of the action, with Deutsche Bank up 40 cents at €98.40 and Dresdner up 53 cents at €50.97. Insurers Allianz and Munich Re were also strong.

But Commerzbank fell back as the takeover premium seeped out of the shares ahead of a widely expected announcement, possibly this week, about closer links with existing partners. The stock fell €1.37 or 3.8 per cent to €35.

The Xetra DAX index was up 130.79, or 1.8 per cent, at 7,347.24 at 5.30 p.m. German time.

Amsterdam rose to within one point of its record high, with the AEX index adding 5.66 to 695.18.

Cable TV group UPC gained €2.69 or 9.8 per cent to €30.20 and telecoms leader KPN added €1.17 at €31.18. Philips improved €1.70 to €56.50.