THE Nasdaq stock market set its eighth straight record close yesterday as investors again sought shares of small and medium sized companies, while blue chips edged up in the lowest trading volume in more than a month.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended with a gain of 5.42 points at 5,573.41.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 1.31 points to a new high of 1,188.20. Last week, the index jumped 48.19 points, or 4.2 per cent.

In the broader market, declining issues led advances 1,225 to 1,089 on subdued trading of 342 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange, the slowest since 334.7 million shares were traded on March 25th.

The last time Nasdaq had such an unbroken string of records was the 10 consecutive record closing highs that ended on January 9th, 1992.