Wall St stocks surged yesterday, pushing the Dow industrials up more than 200 points to climb above 9,500 for the first time ever and shattering other records as investors snapped up shares in high-tech and big-name companies in extremely heavy trading.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 233.78 points or by 2.5 per cent at 9,544.97, beating its previous closing record high of 9,374.27 set on November 23rd last.

In a trend so consistent over the years that analysts have dubbed it "the January effect," the stock market is awash in cash from various sources.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by nearly a two-to-one margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,013 up, 1,117 down and 441 unchanged.