MARKET CLOSE: IPOs and blue chips lead techs

New issues and bellwethers carried the tech sector higher Friday.

The tech-infused Nasdaq Composite Index rose 25.88 to 2,886.58, the S&P 500 picked up 18.38 to 1,336.02, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 112.71 to 10,649.76. Inter@ctive Week's @100 Index advanced 48.04 to 5,159.99.

A line of IPOs filed onto the trading scene Friday, Interwoven (Nasdaq: IWOV) leading the way with a gain of 24 to 41. Among the rest of the new offerings, Jupiter Communications (Nasdaq: JPTR) advanced 14 1/2 to 35 1/2; E-Stamp (Nasdaq: ESTM) increased 5 3/8 to 22 3/8; Illuminet Holdings (Nasdaq: ILUM) rose 9 1/2 to 28 1/2; Trizetto Group (Nasdaq: TZIX) was unchanged at 9; Homeservices.com (Nasdaq: HMSV) likewise stayed flat at its initial offering price of 15; and Vitaminshoppe.com (Nasdaq: VSHP) falling 1 1/4 to 9 3/4.

Xerox (NYSE: XRX) retreated 10 3/4 to 32 following a third quarter profit warning. The company said early Friday that it expects third quarter earnings per share to be down 10 to 12 percent from a year ago. The results will be well short of Wall Street estimates of 58 cents a share. PaineWebber and Prudential Securities downgraded the stock.

Hi/fn (Nasdaq: HIFN) continued Thursday's rout and swept up other network chip makers along the way. Hi/fn fell 36 1/4 to 37 3/4 Friday after confirming rumors of a first quarter revenue shortfall caused by sudden demand reductions at two major customers, including Ascend. Other Ascend suppliers retreated, including PMC-Sierra (Nasdaq: PMCS), down 10 3/8 to 89 1/2, and Applied Micro Circuits (Nasdaq: AMCC), falling 6 9/16 to 68 15/16.

Ascend's parent, Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) dropped 13/16 to 64 3/8.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) went down 2 7/8 to 113 1/2. Big Blue plans to cut up to 10 percent of its Personal Systems workforce because the unit continues to lose money.

Puma Technologies (Nasdaq: PUMA), which makes software for transferring data from mobile devices, rose 4 7/16 to 21 5/8 after C.E. Unterberg Towbin reiterated a "strong buy" rating on the stock. Analyst John Todd described Puma as undervalued compared to its peers.

Telecom stocks continued the heavy activity they've seen all week since MCI Worldcom announced plans to buy Sprint. Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GBLX), a frequent target of merger speculation, gained 4 5/16 to 36 1/2 as the most active Nasdaq stock. MCI Worldcom (Nasdaq: WCOM) increased 1 1/8 to 76 7/8, and Qwest Communications (Nasdaq: QWST) picked up 1 17/32 to 36 15/32.

In other heavily traded technology stocks, Dell Computer (Nasdaq: DELL) advanced 1 1/8 to 45 1/2, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) moved up 1/16 to 75 11/16, and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) increased 1 3/16 to 94 15/16, America Online (NYSE: AOL) rose 3 1/8 to 121 5/8, and Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) gained 15/16 to 71 13/16.>