Wall Street has ended a wild session with its best showing of the week after investors went in search of bargains among stocks devastated by seven days of massive losses.

The Nasdaq composite index finished with a modest gain, while the Dow Jones industrials lost 126 points, a relataively mild drop after the blue chips fell 2,271 during the previous eight trading days. Still, the Dow, which traded in a range of 1,019 points Friday, had its worst week ever, as did the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

Investors have spent much of the past month agonizing over a credit market that remains frozen, posing a threat to the economy. But Friday’s gainers included financial stocks, the ones most decimated amid the ongoing banking and credit crisis.