Dow’s Newest Additions Turn In Mixed Showing

New index, same quirks. Even membership in the elite Dow Jones industrial average, it turns out, is not a one-way ticket to stock-pickers’ nirvana.

The newly reconstituted Dow industrials didn’t shake its reputation for volatility. On Monday, it slid as much as 81 points, but then reversed course to end up 20.02 at 6,955.48.

Four stocks were replaced in the 30-stock industrial to more accurately reflect changes in the economy, according to Dow Jones & Co., the gatekeeper to Wall Street’s best-known indicator. It was the first change since 1991 and made a mixed showing in its debut.

Of the stocks added Monday, Travelers Group slid substantially, Hewlett-Packard and Wal-Mart posted tiny gains, and the shares of Johnson & Johnson ended unchanged.

Among the four stocks removed, Woolworth gave ground, Bethlehem Steel was unchanged, and Westinghouse and Texaco each managed small gains.

Joining the elite Dow 30 allows a company “to attract a little bit more premium,” said analyst Eugene Peroni, but, “it won’t change a stock’s historical pattern.”

“I think these new additions have infused the Dow with some fresh new blood,” said Peroni, a technical analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

Just because they are lumped together in the Dow Jones industrial average doesn’t stop each of the components from trading on their own merits, said Bill Meehan, a market analyst at Prudential Securities.

Shares of Travelers Group closed down $1.37-1/2, or 2.6 percent, at $51.87-1/2. In joining the Dow, Travelers - a brokerage and insurance giant - moved into the forefront of financial company stocks that are slipping in reaction to mounting concern about higher interest rates.

Long-term interest rates rose in the bond market Monday.

Hewlett-Packard closed up 25 cents at $55.62-1/2. Analysts said H-P is enjoying a recent upturn in some of the highly volatile computer stocks.

Wal-Mart shares also gained 25 cents to $28.87-1/2. The nation’s largest retailer is at the top of a recovering retail sector, Meehan said.

Johnson & Johnson, already a strong consumer and pharmaceutical products company, got no lift Monday from being added to the Dow. Its shares ended unchanged at $57.87-1/2.