The Dow soared into record territory on Wall Street yesterday, completing a nearly 2,000-point rebound from its summer slide, as a spurt of merger activity fuelled another rally in the stock market.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 214.72 points - or by 2.3 per cent - to a record 9,374.27, vaulting past the record close of 9,337.97 set on July 17th.

The Standard and Poor's 500 also jumped to its first record high since July, but small-company shares continued to hold back the blue-chip rally, preventing record highs by other popular indexes.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 49.21 to 1,977.42, but remains about 37 points from its July 20th peak at 2,014.25.