LONDON. Dec 31: Wall Street's Infatuation with high-tech stocks has spread overseas, where investors newly smitten by Internet and telecommunications shares have helped boost regional stock indexes to record heights, says AP.

An accelerating economic recovery in Europe and Asia together with steps by some governments to restructure long-coddled industries have added fuel to the stock-market sizzle in recent weeks, analysts said Thursday.

As trading for 1999 drew to a close, the index of most actively traded stocks In Paris hit a new high, for a 51 per cent increase for the year. In London, a rally that began this fall climaxed with the leading stock index rising to a record level that was 18 per cent higher than in Jan-

There's a general sense that after a number of years in the doldrums. Europe is on the move again.” said Michael Mar-rese. a senior economist at Chase Manhattan's London office.

In Asia, some of the countries that plunged into recession after the financial crisis of 1997 are clawing their way back to prosperity. Stock markets in Hong Kong and Singapore set new records Thursday, while prices In Tokyo climbed to their highest finish of the year.

The combined result proves that the trend seen in this week's surge in the Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average is not unique to the United States.

In both Europe and Asia, a common theme has been the en-thusiasm investors have

shown for high-tech companies. even though — like Amazon.com — many Internet firms have yet to show a profit.

The three best-perlorming British stocks of 1999 have been shares In companies involved in software or e-com-merce. The fas test-growing of the bunch, a financial services group called Durlacher. saw its share price rocket this year by 6.249 per cent . according to the Financial Times.

The obsession in Britain with dot.com firms has so far been greatest among small investors. said Roger Alford, a senior research associate at the London School of Economics.

The limited number of shares available in such firms means they are less attractive to large, institutional investors.