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Equities soar as Walt

Disney shares jump

NEW YORK: Blue-chip stocks soared Monday to recoup some of their recent losses, helped by a jump in Walt Disney Co. shares after the company named Hollywood mogul Michael Ovitz as its new president.

The Nasdaq index closed at a record high as investors' appetite for technology stocks showed no signs of easing.

The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 41.56 points to 4,659.86 after shedding nearly 100 points over the past two weeks. In the broader market, gainers led losers 1,238 to 938 on light volume of 262 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Buying in the technology group helped lift the Nasdaq composite index 8.33 points, or 0.83 percent, to 1,012.44, surpassing the previous record of 1,010.66 set July 27.

But the gains were not seen as convincing as overall market activity remained light.

"Basically we've got a market that's dull and churning and the Dow's up thanks to gains in Caterpillar and Disney," said Alfred Goldman, technical research director at A.G. Edwards.

"It's very quiet. Nothing is screaming up," said Chris Willox, a trader at BT Brokerage.

He noted that there was buying in technology stocks by money managers "since anyone under-weighted in that sector will have a lot of explaining to do."

Disney surprised the market by naming superagent Ovitz as its president. Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner said the move strengthened Disney's management as it moves ahead with its planned Capital Cities/ABC merger.

Disney, a Dow component, added 2-3/8 to 58-7/8.

"The Street likes this news. It creates much-needed depth to the upper echelon of Disney and puts a young, energetic, creative person in charge in a vacancy left by the death last year of Frank Wells," said Phil Orlando, a senior vice president at First Capital Advisers.

Fellow Dow component Caterpillar gained 2-5/8 to 66 after recent weakness.

Technology stocks posting gains included Microsoft Corp., up 2-1/4 to 98-3/4, Sun Microsystems, up 4-1/4 to 52-1/4, IBM, up 1-1/2 to 110-3/4, Micron, up 2-1/2 to 65-3/8, and Texas Instruments, up 4-1/4 to 153-3/4.

A.C. Moore, senior investment strategist at Dunvegan Associates, said the overall market is "still drifting and consolidating. The concentrated move today in technology stocks is still pretty narrow and reflects recent weakness."

Mergers and acquisitions were another focal point.

Integrated Silicon Systems jumped 14-7/8 to 61-5/8 after it agreed to merge with ArcSys in a stock swap deal. ArcSys added 7/8 to 45-5/8.

National Convenience Stores jumped 5-3/8 to 19-1/8 after Circle K offered to buy the company for $17 a share. Circle K added 3/4 to 19-1/2.

PP&L Resources climbed 2-5/8 to 21-5/8 after getting an unsolicited $24-a-share, or $3.8 billion bid from PECO Energy, whose shares fell 1 to 26-3/4.

CIPSCO rose 2-7/8 to 32-1/2 after it agreed to merge with Union Electric in a deal valued at $1.2 billion. Union Electric fell 1/2 to 34-7/8.

CBS rose 1 to 79-1/8 after it was widely reported that Turner Broadcasting had talked with Microsoft about an investment in Turner that would allow Turner to bid for CBS. Westinghouse recently agreed to buy CBS for $5.4 billion. Turner shares added 2-1/8 to 23-5/8.

The Standard & Poor's composite index of 500 stocks rose 4.63 to 559.74.

The American Stock Exchange index rose 2.14 to 523.94.

The NYSE Composite index of all listed common stocks rose 1.98 to 299.75. The average price per share rose 24 cents.

The Wilshire Associates Equity Index -- the market value of NYSE, American and Nasdaq issues -- was 5,548.813, up 38.073, or 0.69 percent.-Reuter