Telecom stocks advance moderately
By Jeffry Bartash, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 10:57 AM ET Aug 16, 2000 NewsWatch
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NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Shares of telecommunications companies advanced Wednesday against the backdrop of soothing U.S. economic data and strength in other high-tech sectors.
In recent trading, the American Stock Exchange's Networking Index, which comprises the larger equipment makers, rose 1.8 percent. The Nasdaq Telecommunications Index, which represents younger manufacturers, accelerated 1.1 percent.
And the Standard & Poor's Communications Services Index inclined 0.7 percent. The index represents the big phone companies.
In the equipment sector, nearly all the big manufacturers forged modest gains. Cabletron (CS: news, msgs), up 1 1/4 to 31 3/8, and Alcatel (ALA: news, msgs), up 2 1/4 to 74 5/16, led the way.
Smaller equipment generally generated similar increases. Aware (AWRE: news, msgs) climbed 2 11/16 to 40 1/8, a 6 percent rise. Paradyne Networks (PDYN: news, msgs) and Sycamore Networks (SCMR: news, msgs) also were solid performers, each posting 4 percent increases.
In the phone sector, the local Bells were narrowly mixed. Workers at Verizon (VZ: news, msgs) entered their 10th day of a strike as talks were hung up on issues involving work conditions. The stock slipped 3/8 to 41 5/8. BellSouth (BLS: news, msgs) and SBC Communications (SBC: news, msgs) increased fractionally.
Long-distance stocks, meanwhile, mostly declined, though small advanced in AT&T (T: news, msgs) WorldCom (WCOM: news, msgs) kept the S&P index aloft.
A big decliner: Alltel (AT: news, msgs), which slid 5 9/16 to 57.
Elsewhere, satellite stocks rose slightly and wireless stocks were mixed.
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