Greenspan cheers up investors

The Dow Jones industrial average roared back above 8,000 as Federal Reserve chairman Mr Alan Greenspan took a nonthreatening …

The Dow Jones industrial average roared back above 8,000 as Federal Reserve chairman Mr Alan Greenspan took a nonthreatening tone in his mid-year report to Congress. The Dow rose nearly 155 points to 8,061.65, beating last Wednesday's record high of 8,038.88, which was the blue-chip barometer's first close above 8,000.

Although stocks drew an early boost from some robust earnings reports, trading was fairly restrained before Mr Greenspan delivered his testimony.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a five-to-two margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,091 up, 847 down and 503 unchanged.

NYSE volume totalled 579.56 million shares, against 459.49 million in the previous session.

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The Standard and Poor's 500stock list rose 20.97 to 933.91, and the NYSE composite index rose 9.39 to 483.89. The Nasdaq composite index rose 27.64 to 1,563.87, and the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 3.80 to 634.20. - (AP)