Major Averages Close Firmly Positive Following Early Rally

(RTTNews) - After showing a notable move to the downside last week, stocks regained some ground during trading on Monday. While buying interest waned after an initial rally, the markets maintained a positive bias throughout the trading session.

Networking stocks saw considerable on the day, resulting in a 1.6 percent gain by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. Despite the increase, the index remains well off the two-year highs set last Monday.

Arris Group (ARRS), Polycom (PLCM) and Cisco (CSCO) turned in some of the networking sector's best performances.

Significant strength was also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 1.3 percent gain posted by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. The index regained some ground after closing lower for four consecutive sessions.

LSI Corp. (LSI) helped lead the semiconductor sector higher after agreeing to be acquired by Avago Technologies (AVGO) for $6.6 billion in cash. Shares of LSI jumped 38.6 percent.

Oil service, defense, and computer hardware stocks also moved notably higher on the day, moving to the upside along with most of the other major sectors.

The major averages moved roughly sideways throughout the afternoon, holding on to strong gains. The Dow advanced 129.21 points or 0.8 percent to 15,884.57, the Nasdaq climbed 28.54 points or 0.7 percent to 4,029.52 and the S&P 500 rose 11.22 points or 0.6 percent to 1,786.54.