Dow Surges Late in Day, Closes With 29.28 Gain

The stock market ended higher today after a late burst of buying lifted the market out of its doldrums.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials jumped 29.28 points to finish the day at 2,736.94, after falling below the 2,700-mark around midday.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 5 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 903 issues up, 542 down and 506 unchanged.

Big Board volume totaled 131.61 million shares, against 116.11 million in the previous session.

The NYSE’s composite index rose 1.80 to 187.40.

At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index gained 0.57 to 361.88.

Analysts said their was no particular economic reason for the late-day activity, which followed a dull morning session with the market drifting in a narrow, directionless trading range.

The market gradually began to show some life after sinking to the day’s lows just after midday. The Dow Jones average dipped below the 2,700-mark to 2,699 at around 12:30 EST.

Analysts attributed the late gains mainly to normal “window dressing” that accompanies the end of a quarter.

“Funds are going into blue chips that investors regard as their favorites,” said Charles Jensen, chief technical analyst for the New York investment firm MKI Securities Corp.

Drug stocks, airlines and oil stocks were among the day’s better performers.

Volume, nevertheless, was slim as many institutional players remained on the sidelines with what analysts called end-of-the quarter blues in anticipation of possible disappointing first-quarter corporate profits.

Corporate profits, which have been in a recession since the second quarter of last year, continued to decline in the fourth quarter and helped dampen the market’s enthusiasm at the start of 1990.

Bond prices drifted at modestly lower levels today in uneventful trading ahead of the Treasury’s two-year note auction.

The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond dipped 5/32 point, or $1.56 per $1,000 in face value, by midday. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction from price, edged up to 8.47% from 8.46% late Monday.

“It’s pretty quiet frankly. As far as the activity that’s going on, it seems to be centered around today’s two-year note auction,” said Ward McCarthy, a money market analyst at Stone & McCarthy Research Associates Inc.