US stocks closed October on a strong note yesterday, giving the Dow its biggest one-month gain in nearly 12 years.

The Dow Jones industrial average, up 123.06 on Thursday, added 97.07 - or 1.1 per cent - to close at 8,592.10. It was the highest finish since August 25th, before the worst of a nerve-racking sell-off.

The advance left the Dow up 749.48 points, or by 9.6 per cent, for October. It was the strongest performance since January 1987, when the Dow shot up 13.8 per cent, according to the statistics department at the Wall Street Journal, the custodian of the average.

The Dow also was 8.6 per cent higher than when it began the year. But it still was 8 per cent, or 745.87 below its record high of 9,337.97, set July 17th.

In other trading, the Standard and Poor's 500 rose 12.74 to 1,098.67, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 14.20 to 1,771.39.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a five to two margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,220 up, 880 down and 437 unchanged.

NYSE volume totalled 772.67 million shares, up from 695.00 at the same time on Thursday.

The NYSE composite index rose 7.04 to 543.35, and the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 7.93 to 645.41.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 3.68 to 378.16.