Major Averages Close Firmly Positive As Traders Go Bargain Hunting

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved sharply higher during trading on Thursday, partly offsetting the substantial weakness seen over the past few sessions. Bargain hunting contributed to the strength on Wall Street along with some upbeat earnings news.

While most of the major sectors moved to the upside, biotechnology stocks posted particularly strong gains. Reflecting the strength in the biotech sector, the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index surged up by 2.9 percent.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) helped lead the biotech sector higher, jumping by 21.1 after reporting better than expected fourth quarter results and providing upbeat guidance.

Considerable strength was also visible among railroad stocks, as reflected by the 2.7 percent gain posted by the Dow Jones Railroads Index. With the gain, the index climbed further off the one-month closing low that it set on Monday.

Electronic storage stocks also turned in a strong performance on the day, resulting in a 1.8 percent gain by the NYSE Arca Disk Drive Index. Western Digital (WDC) and Hutchinson Technology (HTCH) posted notable gains.

Networking, healthcare, commercial real estate, and utility stocks also showed strong moves to the upside amid broad based buying interest.

Meanwhile, gold stocks bucked the uptrend by the broader markets, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 2.5 percent. The weakness in the sector came as gold for April delivery tumbled $19.70 to $1,242.50 an ounce.

The major averages ended the day firmly in positive territory but off their highs for the session. The Dow climbed 109.82 points or 0.7 percent to 15,848.61, the Nasdaq soared 71.69 points or 1.8 percent to 4,123.12 and the S&P 500 jumped 19.99 points or 1.1 percent to 1,794.19.