The Dow Jones industrial average barrelled back into record territory yesterday after a six-month slump dominated by unresolved worries about troubling economic conditions overseas and the impact on US companies.

On Wall Street, the stock market's best-known indicator rose 115.09 points, or 1.41 per cent, to close at 8,295.61 - enough to top its best close of 8,259.31, set in August.

The Dow has not been at this level since the day after the record was set, when it peaked at 8,299.49 and began a sharp slide amid the earliest whiffs of a fiscal crisis in South-East Asia. The situation in Asia continued to deteriorate into the Autumn, pushing world markets into a tailspin by late October.

Broad-market indicators were also posting big gains, with the Standard and Poor's 500 and the New York Stock Exchange composite quickly erasing Monday's marginal losses and moving back into record territory.

NYSE volume totalled 641.50 million shares.