Blue-chip stocks closed lower yesterday as a sell-off in technology shares pulled the market down in a volatile, topsy-turvy session.

The Dow Jones industrial average was off 92.9 points, or nearly 1.2 per cent, at 7,694.43 after swinging in a range of nearly 155 points.

In the broader market, declining issues led advances by a small margin on moderate volume of 486 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Blue chips initially were down 129 points but fought back to show a gain of 25 points in afternoon dealing before tumbling anew.

Traders attributed the broad swings to computer-generated program trades, which had a greater-than-normal impact in the relatively light pre-holiday market.

"The program trades and futures-based trades are making for wild swings," said Mr Arun Kumar, senior US equities strategist at Lehman Brothers.

Among the big movers, Altera Corp fell 9 to 52 3/8 after the computer chip maker warned of a slowdown in sales.