THE Dow Jones industrial average soared to its second-biggest point gain yesterday, rising to its highest level in nearly a month. It brought its rebound 442 points, or 7 per cent, in just seven sessions. The gain put the Dow above 6,800 for the first time since late March and beat last Tuesday's 135-point rally, which had been the biggest point gain since a 186.84-point jump two days after the Black Monday crash of 1987.

The Dow has now wiped out more than half of its recent 700-point slide, but still stands about 250 points shy of its all-time best close of 7085.16, set on March 11th.

Advances outnumbered declines by more than a 3-to-2 margin on the New York Stock Exchange. The Standard and Poor's 500-stock list rose 14.27 to 774.64, and the NYSE composite index rose 6.44 to 405.84. The Nasdaq composite index rose 8.79 to 1,212.74, but the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 6.51 to 544.96.