NEW YORK – Investors rushed into U.S. stocks Wednesday, sending the Nasdaq composite index to its highest point since 2000, after the Federal Reserve reiterated its vow to stimulate economic growth with low interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 95.59 points, or 0.8 percent, at 12,690.96, with percent gainers led by a 2.7 percent rally in General Electric Co. shares. All but two of its 30 components gained, lifting the blue-chip index to its highest close since May 20, 2008.

The S&P 500 index advanced 8.42 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,355.66. Among the benchmark’s 10 industry groups, telecommunications led sector gains. Only energy stocks fell.

The Nasdaq composite rose 22.34 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,869.88, breaking through a 2007 closing high to its highest since December 2000.

After ending at multiyear highs Tuesday, the U.S. benchmark indexes had wavered near the flat line through the first half of Wednesday’s session, then headed more definitively into positive territory after the Federal Open Market Committee statement.

Stock gains strengthened after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke held the Fed’s first post-statement news conference, and intensified into the final hour. The Fed said it would keep its target rates unchanged at 0 percent to 0.25 percent and end its $600 billion bond-purchase program on schedule on June 30. The agency also said a pick-up in inflation would likely be short-lived.

 

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