Major Averages Close Firmly In Positive Territory

(RTTNews) - Following the significant weakness seen last week, stocks showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Monday. The markets benefited from a number of positive catalysts, although the major averages remained well below their recent highs.

Most of the major sectors moved notably higher on the day, reflecting the broad based buying interest on Wall Street.

Oil stocks posted particularly strong gains, driving the NYSE Arca Oil & Index up by 2.1 percent. With the gain, the index reached its best closing level in almost a month.

The strength among oil stocks came despite a modest decrease by the price of crude oil, as crude for May delivery fell $0.19 to $48.68 a barrel.

Considerable strength was also visible among telecom stocks, as reflected by the 1.9 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Telecom Index. The gain by the index came after it ended the previous session at a nearly two-month closing low.

Financial, natural gas, utilities, and housing stocks also saw significant strength on the day, while gold stocks were among the few groups to buck the uptrend.

After moving sharply higher in early trading, the major averages remained firmly positive throughout the session. The Dow soared 263.65 points or 1.5 percent to 17,976.31, the Nasdaq jumped 56.22 points or 1.2 percent to 4,947.44 and the S&P 500 surged up 25.22 points or 1.2 percent to 2,086.24.