Dow Edges Up, Trading Slow

Stock prices moved higher Monday, after a day of trading that analysts described as mostly listless and uneventful.

At the close, the Dow Jones index of 30 industrial stocks stood at 2,493.94, up 8.61 points from Friday.

In the broad market, advancing issues outnumbered declining issues by about 4 to 3 unchanged. For most of the session, however, the ratio was only slightly on the positive side.

NYSE volume totaled 152.04 million shares.

Analysts said the stock market drew most of its strength from a bond market that remained generally steady throughout the day and a good performance by the dollar on world currency exchanges.

On the Big Board’s most-active list, Southern Co. was down at 24; AT&T; was up 1/2 at 31 1/8; Pacific Telesis was unchanged at 25, and General Electric was up 3/8 at 57 1/8.

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich rose 1 to 63 3/4, after British Printing and Communication Corp. said it was dropping all litigation against the company, which had frustrated its takeover bid.

Digital Equipment was up 1 at 163 1/2; Teldyne Inc. was up 8 at 367 1/2 and Xerox was up 5/8 at 74 3/4.

Ford Motor was down 1 at 103; Chrysler was down 7/8 at 38 5/8 and General Motors was off at 86 1/2. The companies are facing new contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers.

The Treasury’s closely watched 30-year bond was up 3/32 point, or about $1.25 per $1,000 in face amount, while its yield dipped to 8.82% from 8.83% Friday.

Analysts said there was very little drive in the market despite a more stable dollar on domestic markets and a report that personal income rose 0.4% in June.

Yields on three-month Treasury bills were down 2 basis points to 5.79%. Six-month bills rose 1 basis points to 6.01% and one-year bills were off 3 basis points at 6.35%.

The federal funds rate, the interest on overnight loans between banks, traded at 6.56%, compared to 6.675% Friday.