Profit Taking Brings Stock Rally to Halt : Dow Index Falls 24.70 From Post-Crash High

NEW YORK — The stock market’s recent rally bogged down Wednesday as blue chip shares succumbed to moderate profit taking after Tuesday’s rise to a post-crash high. Smaller issues, however, showed more of the strength that they have been displaying since late last year.

The Dow Jones average of 30 big-name industrials, up 24.70 points on Tuesday, dropped back 6.80 to 2,074.27.

Advancing issues outnumbered declines by about 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 872 up, 654 down and 460 unchanged.

Big Board volume totaled 210.90 million shares, against 237.68 million in the previous session.

“The Dow looked a little tired, but the broader market was still in gear,” said analyst Hildegard Zagorski of Prudential-Bache Securities.

Confidence has continued to spread lately on Wall Street that the economy remains healthy nearly five months after Black Monday on Oct. 19.

Motive for Investment

In addition, stock prices have been less volatile lately than they were as recently as early January, suggesting that the mood of investors is less subject to sudden change.

Analysts say investing institutions have grown more eager to put some of their cash reserves into stocks, in order to show in their first-quarter reports to clients that they participated in the recent market rally.

Still, many observers wonder how much stock might be for sale at higher prices by investors sitting with paper losses and waiting for an opportune time to get out of the market.

Japanese stocks were mostly higher. Matsushita Electrical, up 5 at 200 3/4; Honda Motor, up 2 3/4 at 129 3/4; Pioneer Electronics, up 1 at 52 1/2, and Sony, up 3/8 at 41 3/8, all hit record highs.

Facet Enterprises jumped 3 3/8 to 27. Prospect Group said it planned a $26-a-share tender offer for all of the company’s stock.

Johnson & Johnson added 1 3/4 to 85. Analysts said buying was prompted by renewed enthusiasm over sales prospects for a J&J; skin treatment product that has received considerable publicity.

Losers among the blue chips included International Business Machines, down 1 at 116 5/8; McDonald’s, down 3/8 at 46 3/4; Exxon, down 5/8 at 41 7/8; Ford Motor, down 5/8 at 45 1/8, and Eastman Kodak, down 3/4 at 42 7/8.

Charles Schwab Corp., a discount brokerage firm that recently announced an increase in commission rates, rose 1/2 to 9 1/2. Schwab stock traded as high as 17 after the company went public last September, and as low as 5 3/4 in the wake of the crash.

Nationwide turnover in NYSE-listed issues, including trades in those stocks on regional exchanges and in the over-the-counter market, totaled 240.13 million shares.

Market indicators closed mixed. Standard & Poor’s index of 400 industrials rose 0.04 to 312.46; S&P;’s 500-stock composite index was down 0.37 at 269.06.

In foreign trading, stock prices rose in Tokyo and London Wednesday, as investors took heart from Wall Street’s surprise rally the previous day.

On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei 225-share index rose 139.66 points to 25,605.39 in heavy trading.

In London, stocks finished higher but below their best levels on worries that the pound’s recent rise might batter British exporting firms.

The Financial Times 100-share index finished up 0.3 points at 1,815.3. The index had risen at one stage to 1,826 but then pulled back.