Nasdaq Through the Decades

It wasn’t always the nation’s hottest stock index. Here’s a look at the Nasdaq composite index’s progress through the decades:

* 1970s: Ends the decade at 151.14, a net gain of 51% from its creation in February 1971 at a value of 100. That wasn’t much of an advance, but it beat the Dow Jones industrials, which began the decade at 800.35 and ended at 838.74--for a net gain of just 4.8%.

Nasdaq, as the home of most smaller stocks in the 1970s, fared better as many smaller firms coped better with soaring inflation.

* 1980s: The Nasdaq index surged 201% in the decade, finishing 1989 at 454.82, as fledgling technology stocks began to attract more interest. But many investors, frightened by tech stocks’ volatility, stuck with blue chips: The Standard & Poor’s 500 index leaped 227% in the decade. The Dow rose 228%.

* 1990s: The Nasdaq crosses 1,000 on July 17, 1995, and 2,000 on July 16, 1998. As tech has become the world’s premier growth industry in the 1990s, Nasdaq--while still the home of most smaller stocks--now is dominated by its tech giants.

Nasdaq’s gain so far in the 1990s: 566%. The S&P;, by contrast, is up 283% and the Dow is up 285%.