Wall Street gains on bargain-hunting

Wall Street was up in mid-afternoon trade Monday on bargain-hunting by investors and on takeover rumors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.39 percent to 12,229.77 while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 2,322.6 and the S&P 500 gained 0.6 percent to 1,339.27. The technology sector was higher, while internet search engine Yahoo (NAS: YHOO) gained after it rejected an unsolicited bid from Microsoft (NAS: MSFT). The oil sector saw gains on advances in crude oil prices. Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) were added to the Dow, replacing Honeywell International (NYSE: HON) and Altria Group (NYSE: MO).

Equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region saw significant declines on Monday after officials from the Group of Seven warned that the global economy will slow in reaction to volatile equities markets around the world and the housing slump in the United States. In Australia the Sydney Ordinaries fell 2.11 percent to 5,603.1 and the S&P/ASX200 was down 2.13 percent to 5,537.6. The FTSE Straits Times Index was 2.17 percent lower to 2,868.29. South Korea’s Kospi index dropped 3.29 percent to 1,640.67 while the Hang Seng was down 3.64 percent to 22,616.11. In India, the Sensex fell 4.78 percent to 16,630.91 on a spectacularly bad trade debut by Reliance Power Ltd. (BSE: REL), which was down as much as 21 percent during the session and settled 17 percent lower.

The warnings from the G7 also hurt European markets, sending them lower as well. The pan-European FTSE Eurofirst 300 dropped 0.8 percent to 1,291.96. In Frankfurt, the Dax was down 0.35 percent to 6,743.54 while the Paris CAC-40 was 0.57 percent lower to 4,682.7. Madrid’s IBEX fell 0.9 percent to 12,818.8. The utilities sector saw gains, as did drug makers, the semiconductors sector, the steel sector, and airlines. Banks, insurers, and builders were lower, while the automobile manufacturing sector was mixed.

London’s equities markets declined on the session. The FTSE 100 was down 1.32 percent to 5,707.7 while the FTSE 250 dropped 0.74 percent to 9,735.4. Miners, the pharmaceuticals sector and the oil and gas sector all saw gains. Homebuilders were lower after Goldman Sachs put Taylor Wimpey (LSE: TW) and Barratt Developments (LSE: BDEV) on its “conviction sell” list. Banks also saw declines, while insurers, the media sector, and retailers were mostly lower.

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