US shares score solid gains

NEW YORK: US shares racked up strong gains Monday with the Nasdaq adding
nearly 2.5 per cent helped by an Apple surge, but Facebook shares
flipped below their IPO price on their first full day of trading.

Jumps in the prices of the Nasdaq's two largest companies -- Apple and Google -- drove the composite index higher.

But
trade was heaviest by far in Facebook, the Nasdaq's newest member and
third-largest company, with its shares plummeting 11 per cent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 135.10 points, or 1.09 per cent, to 12,504.48.

The
SandP 500-stock index climbed 20.77 (1.60 per cent) to 1,315.99, while
the tech-rich Nasdaq added 68.42 (2.46 per cent) at 2,847.21.

Facebook,
which sold 541 million shares to the public on Friday at US$38 a share,
sank from the opening and ended the day down 11 per cent at US$34.03.

"Retail
investors are scared. Most people thought this was a hot deal, and now
that it's not, no one knows where the bottom is," said Lou Kerner of the
Social Internet Fund.

"Underwriters generally support the stock at the offering price, and that support now appears to be exhausted."

Meanwhile
positive analysts reports gave Apple a 5.8 percent jump and Google rose
2.3 per cent after Chinese antitrust regulators signed off on the
company's US$12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility.

Motorola Mobility jumped 2.0 per cent.

On
the New York Stock Exchange, JPMorgan Chase led the trade, losing 2.9
per cent as chief executive Jamie Dimon announced the company would
suspend its share buyback program as it focused on cleaning up the
problems in its in-house trading operations, the source of a US$2
billion loss reported on May 10.

Electrical equipment
manufacturer Cooper Industries jumped 14 per cent on the news that it
would be bought by Eaton Corp for US$11.8 billion in cash and stock, a
29 per cent premium on the Friday closing price.

Eaton shares fell 0.7 per cent.

Lowe's
Companies, the nation's second-largest home-improvement retailer, sank
10.1 per cent after reporting better-than-expected profit in the first
quarter but lowering its full-year forecast. -- AFP