Blue chips buoyant, but Internet shares slide

US stocks closed mixed today as a recovery in the bond market pushed blue chips higher, but poor-performing Internet shares carried…

US stocks closed mixed today as a recovery in the bond market pushed blue chips higher, but poor-performing Internet shares carried the Nasdaq composite index lower.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 72.82, or by 0.7 per cent, to 10,563.33 after having dropped 309 points last week.

The Standard and Poor's 500 index was up 0.49 at 1,294.13, while the technology-dominated Nasdaq fell 49.57 to 2,398.31.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a margin of about 4-to-3 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,314 up, 1,706 down and 541 unchanged. NYSE volume totalled 667.30 million shares, against 687.73 million on Friday.

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The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 6.48 at 431.53. Internet shares were down sharply, led by America Online and Amazon.Com. Online auction company e-Bay skidded lower after last week's shutdown of the service because of computer problems.