Technology stocks rose sharply yesterday after IBM and Microsoft posted strong profits, but the broad market's gains were limited by some profit-taking on Wall Street's most convincing rally in months.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose by only 0.1 per cent but that was enough to notch its first six-session winning streak since February. Most broad-market indexes rose modestly, but the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite recovered most of the gains surrendered before Tuesday's key earnings reports.

Today, IBM rose 3.5 per cent to a record high as the Dow's biggest gainer. Microsoft rose 6 per cent in active Nasdaq trading.

In less than two weeks, the Dow has bounced about 1,000 points from the bottom of a sell-off that nearly pushed it below the summer low of 7,400. More than half the gain has come since last Thursday, when the Federal Reserve cut its lending rates for the second time in a month.