Stocks Rise In Tumultuous Trading Session

Stocks rebounded from last week’s heavy losses and ended slightly higher Monday, but investors hoping for a break from Friday’s wild ride were hit with another day of volatility.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 63.02 points to close at 7,819.31.

Stocks opened higher across the board Monday, with blue chips and technology shares leading the way. AT&T Corp. led the gainers among the 30 stocks comprising the Dow Jones industrial average, gaining 2-5/8 to close at 63-15/16.

Analysts said investors were trying to rebuild from Friday, when the Dow Jones industrial average fell 269 points before recovering two-thirds of its losses and closing down 90 points.

Also, said Tony Dwyer of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., prolonged weakness in the technology-heavy Nasdaq left investors ready to buy.

“Nasdaq is so oversold,” Dwyer said. “There’s so much negative sentiment that a rally was in order.”

The Nasdaq index, which posted the only gains Friday, shot higher as part of the broad rally early Monday, faded at midday and then recovered.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Monday:

NYSE

Dynatech, rose 10-3/16 to 46-15/16.

The telecommunications service company based in Burlington, Mass., agreed to be acquired by a group led by its management for about $900 million, or $47.75 a share cash and a 5.3 percent stake in the company following a recapitalization.

American Bankers Insurance Group, rose 1-7/16 to 45-11/16.

American International Group is buying American Bankers for $2.2 billion in stock, or $47 a share. American Bankers will operate as a subsidiary of AIG.

NASDAQ

Xionics Document Technologies, fell 6-9/32 to 3-19/32.

The company said a new billing structure reduced up-front payments and will push down earnings to 2 cents a share in its fiscal second quarter. Analysts had anticipated earnings of 10 cents a share for Xionics.

Broderbund Software, fell 1-7/16 to 26-13/16.

CIBC Oppenheimer cut its rating to underperform from hold, saying Broderbund’s earnings growth will slow without another title to make up the revenue generated by its popular Riven computer game.

AMEX

Commodore Applied Technologies, rose 5/16 to 2-7/16.

ICF Kaiser said it will use Commodore’s patented SET technology to remediate mixed waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The SET process destroys hazardous contaminants.