Blue-chip stocks drove the market higher yesterday, securing a third straight day of record highs for leading indices despite an early round of profit-taking. Smaller-company shares lagged behind the bluechip sector, but most broad-market indexes finished higher despite a series of sharp declines in south-east Asia that jostled confidence in that region's fragile recovery, a key factor behind Wall Street's recent advance.

Advancing issues barely outnumbered decliners on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,443 up, 1,439 down and 578 unchanged, while decliners finished with a small lead in Nasdaq trading.

NYSE volume totalled 608.40 million shares, against 593.86 million in the previous session.

The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 4.13 to 1,024.14, the NYSE composite index rose 1.86 to 532.61, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 5.80 to 1,714.35.