Technology and pharmaceutical stocks fell on Wall Street yesterday amid earnings warnings from analysts, while the broader market drifted throughout a lacklustre session.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 21.83, or 0.2 per cent, to close at 11,260.61. The Nasdaq composite index, which is heavily concentrated in technology issues, fell 91.15, or 2.1per cent, to 4,143.18. The Standard and Poor's 500 index slipped 13.69, or 0.9 per cent, to 1,507.08.

Advancing issues were almost even with decliners on the New York Stock Exchanges, where volume came to 836.26 million shares.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was down 2.89 to 539.02.