An afternoon rally and a burst minutes before the close allowed the major stock market indexes to finish with moderate gains Wednesday. The Nasdaq finished near its high for the day with a 0.9% gain. The S&P 500 added 0.8% and the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.7%. The small-cap Russell 2000 was up 1.7% in the stock market today. Volume rose on both main exchanges, according to preliminary data.