By Emily Chasan (Reuters)

U.S. tech stocks rose on Friday after news that Google Inc. will be added to the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index boosted sentiment around the Web search company.

But other indexes were flat as investors remained cautious before new home sales data that could show economic strength and add to the growing perception that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates.

"We're being a bit more cautious on the buying we've been doing. I still feel that a lot of this optimism is based on the first quarter. I really think we're still waiting for the day when the Fed actually stops," said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Advisors.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 6.72 points, or 0.06 percent, at 11,277.01. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 0.14 points, or 0.01 percent, at 1,301.53. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 5.48 points, or 0.24 percent, at 2,305.63.

New home sales data for February are expected at 10 a.m. (1500 GMT). For new home sales, economists forecast a median total of 1.200 million annualized units compared with 1.233 million in January.

The Fed is expected on Tuesday to raise its benchmark interest rate a quarter point to 4.75 percent.

Google's stock, which is listed on Nasdaq, jumped 8.3 percent to $370.23, after S&P said late Thursday the company's stock listing would be added to the S&P 500 Index on March 31.

Many index mutual funds base investments on whether a stock is included in the S&P 500, forcing them to buy Google shares to maintain their funds.

"Google has a terrific business model and fabulous product, and anybody who uses the Internet interacts with Google on a daily basis, so there's a lot of excitement about it," said Barry Ritholtz, fund manager at Ritholtz Capital Partners.

Shares of telecommunications-equipment maker Lucent Technologies Inc. rose 10.6 percent to $3.12 after French rival Alcatel confirmed it was in merger talks with the company.