Thursday, November 26, 1998

Texas Stock Index participates in raucous October surge

AUSTIN (AP) - The Texas Stock Index rose by 19.1 percent in October, resulting in a gain of 72 percent for the past year, the state comptroller's office says.

The index's reading of 665.8 at the end of October is the highest end-of-month value ever, and stocks have continued their climb this month.

The comptroller's office produces the monthly Texas Stock Index to help gauge investor confidence in Texas-based companies. The TSI is one of the 10 components of the comptroller's index of leading Texas economic indicators.

The index stood at 380.4 at the end of October 1997, just days after the 554-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial average.

The 72 percent increase in the 12 months outstripped the 20.1 percent rise of the benchmark S&P 500 Index over the period from Nov. 1, 1997 to Oct. 30, 1998.

In October, the TSI increased by 106.7 points over the Sept. 30 level of 559.1.

The technology sector rose for the third straight month, closing at 2,878.5. That's an 8.9 percent gain (234.7 points) from September.

Texas Instruments completed an $800 million sale of its memory chip business to Micron Technology Inc. The stock value of Compaq Computer Corp. remained unchanged, while Dell Computer Corp. fell less than 1 percent.

General stock prices rose 7.7 percent in October to close at 265.8, up 18.9 points or 7.7 percent from their September close. Of the 27 stocks in the sector, 17 increased in value during October.

The TSI's finance, insurance and real estate sector climbed 6.6 percent to 435.9.

All six of the energy sector's stocks improved during October. As a whole, the sector closed at 114.4, up 8.8 percent from September. That's down 25.3 percent over the past year, however.

Halliburton rose 25.2 percent in October, despite temporary production shutdowns resulting from storms in the Gulf of Mexico.

The stock of Mitchell Energy and Development Corp. rose as the company reported the completion of a dual-zone exploratory well in Galveston Bay.