The Dow Jones Industrial Average finally broke...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finally broke through to hit an all-time high, catching up with all the other popular stock-market indexes. San Diego stocks, however, seemed to be on vacation, and only two new highs were recorded the past week, said Irving Katz, director of research at Thomas Green/San Diego Securities.

San Diego National Bancorp was the largest gainer of the week, moving up $1.75 to reach a new high of $11.75. The other new high was recorded by First National Corp., which has been very strong since announcing a 10% stock dividend. The strength in the two local banks seems to be related to rumored merger or acquisition activity.

With little news to account for any stock movement, most San Diego stocks moved only fractionally. Mail Boxes Etc., which has risen 50% in the last month, fell $.25, despite announcing a 3-for-2 stock split at its annual meeting.

Triton Group Ltd. was up $.125 after announcing its purchase of Liquor Barn in partnership with former executives of Handyman. HomeFed Corp. gained $.875 as it put in place a poison pill anti-takeover defense to ward off unwanted suitors. Both HomeFed and Great American had been mentioned as acquisition candidates because of their Southern California franchises and branch systems.

Advanced Marketing Services gained $1, recovering some of the lost ground resulting from poor earnings the last two quarters.

Western Health Plans sank to a new low, at $.125. Shareholders may have little equity value remaining after the health maintenance organization’s planned sale to Aetna and a group of local hospitals.

Fisher Scientific has been dropped from The Times stock list because the minority interest held in the company by the public was acquired by the Henley Group for $22.25 a share.