US STOCKS-Wall St climbs with oil sector, end-of-quarter buys

Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:16pm EDT
 
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* Oil jumps above $71, driving up energy stocks

* Broker's upgrade of KB Home lifts home builders' stocks

* Dow up 1.1 pct, S&P 500 up 0.9 pct, Nasdaq up 0.3 pct

* For up-to-the-minute market news click [STXNEWS/US] (Updates close with details on sector performance so far this quarter and volume levels)

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, June 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday as higher oil prices lifted shares of energy companies and fund managers snapped up this quarter's winners to burnish their portfolios.

Energy shares ranked among the quarter's strong performers, and a 3.4 percent jump in the price of oil lifted them even further on Monday. Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) was the Dow's top driver, rising 2.2 percent to $70.58.

Fund managers are enhancing their portfolios before the quarter ends on Tuesday in a ritual known as "window dressing" by selling some of the quarter's losers and scooping up the winners. This move bolstered stocks as well.

"This has been a heck of a run," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co, in San Francisco. "A lot of people didn't believe and left a lot at the table. Having the right positions (and) not showing a great deal of cash, that is really the main driving force here -- the so-called window dressing.

"You can show you own the names that everyone knows did well," he said.

The S&P 500 is up 16.2 percent so far for the quarter, putting it on track for its best quarter since the fourth quarter of 1998, when the index jumped nearly 21 percent. The S&P 500 has gained 37 percent since hitting a 12-year closing low in early March as early signs of an economic rebound surfaced.

Financials were the day's top advancer and the leader for quarterly gains, followed by technology.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI gained 90.99 points, or 1.08 percent, to end at 8,529.38. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was up 8.33 points, or 0.91 percent, at 927.23. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 5.84 points, or 0.32 percent, at 1,844.06.

The S&P financial sector .GSPF is up 36.6 percent in the last three months, while technology .GSPT is up 20.1 percent and energy .GSPE is up 10.9 percent.

Shares of home builders helped underpin the market on Monday after Credit Suisse raised its rating on KB Home (KBH.N), citing stronger orders and more attractive valuation. KB Home was up 5.1 percent at $14.11. The Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction Index .DJUSHB advanced 1.5 percent.  Continued...

 

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