Technology, Transports Lead Stock Rise
Stocks rose Monday, led by transportation and technology shares, continuing a rally that began Friday.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 14.82 to 4,756.57.
Advancing issues led decliners by 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was moderate at 318.84 million shares, compared with 378.83 million Friday.
The broad market rose. The NYSE’s composite index gained 1.51 to 310.14. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 3.55 to 583.25.
The Nasdaq composite index advanced 14.14 to 1,039.69, while the American Stock Exchange’s market value index added 1.74 to 516.14.
Transportation stocks rose amid a strong showing in economically sensitive shares.
Some of the stocks that moved substantially on Monday:
NYSE
Praxair Inc. fell 5/8 to 26-1/4.
CBI Industries rose 11 9/64 to 31 17/64.
Industrial gas producer Praxair said it has offered to acquire competitor CBI in a $2.1 billion deal, including $32 per share in cash or Praxair stock for CBI common stock and the assumption of about $700 million in debt. The unsolicited offer was made after CBI halted discussions ago about a possible merger. Praxair filed suit to get CBI to remove a poison-pill provision.
Micron Technologies rose 2-3/4 to 72-3/8.
Zilog rose 1/8 to 34-7/8.
In an interview in this week’s Barron’s, SoundView Financial Richard Whittington said he favors Micron and Texas Instruments. But he believes Advanced Micro’s agreement to acquire NexGen is “disastrous” to Advanced Micro’s shareholders. He has downgraded National Semiconductor and Zilog, charging that they may have added too much plant capacity.
NASDAQ
Novell rose 1-1/2 to 16-3/8.
The Orem, Utah-based software maker said it would quit developing personal productivity software and try to sell its business applications division, which includes the hallmark Word Perfect.
Minnesota Educational Computing Corp. rose 10 to 31-1/4.
SoftKey International Inc. fell 6 to 32-1/8.
SoftKey said it is offering $65 per share for The Learning Company, outbidding Broderbund Software Inc. in a hostile bid worth $606 million. SoftKey also announced a friendly agreement to buy Minnesota Educational Computing Corp. in a $370 million stock swap that values Minnesota’s shares at about $40.
AMEX
Kirby Corp. rose 1-1/8 to 16-7/8.
The Bass investment group said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it holds a 6.8 percent stake in the Houston sea transport and insurance company and may negotiate with it about maximizing shareholder value.