Blue-chip shares sagged just as New Year's Eve arrived, but most stocks finished higher in a calm conclusion to a volatile, yet lucrative year. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 7.72 points to 7,908.25 after surrendering a 43-point gain, but still closed out the year with a robust 22.6 per cent gain.

All in all, however, the session was a non-event, with most investors looking forward to entering 1998 with a clean slate and most of 1997's gains intact.

There was limited reaction to stronger-than-expected economic news. The Standard and Poor's 500stock list fell 0.41 to 970.43, trimming this year's gain to 229.69, or 31 per cent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 5.33 to 1,570.36 today, boosting 1997's gain to 279.33 points, or 21.6 per cent.

All three measures, which have more than doubled since the start of 1995, have now risen at least 20 per cent for three consecutive years, an unprecedented string.