With all the negative sentiment factored into...

With all the negative sentiment factored into the stock market and major banks increasing their prime rate Monday by half a percentage point to 10.5%, the market showed surprisingly little movement in either direction, said Irving Katz, director of research at Thomas Green/San Diego Securities.

Of the 70 San Diego-based stocks charted, only two moved more than one point. One was San Diego Gas & Electric, which gained $1.50 to $38.125, slightly down from its 1988 high of $38.625.

The move came as SCEcorp sweetened its acquisition bid for SDG&E; to 1.3 shares of SCEcorp stock for each SDG&E; share. The SDG&E; board is expected to render a final decision on SCEcorp’s bid by Wednesday.

SCEcorp also promised that SDG&E; President Thomas Page, who would become SCEcorp vice chairman, would participate in its intended San Diego subsidiary. Three SDG&E; directors would be added to the SCEcorp board. Also, SCEcorp would continue to lend financial support to community services that SDG&E; has supported.

The other one-point move was made by Price Co., which by moving up $1 was actually recovering a small part of the $2.50 it had dropped earlier this month.

The earnings reports released during the past weeks seemed to have only negative effects on some of the local companies reporting them. Rohr Industries fell $.25 despite reporting high first-quarter earnings of $.45 a share, compared to $.40 per share over the same quarter last year, and a record backlog of $1.9 billion.