Dow soars nearly 1,300 points, best one-day point gain in history

APD NEWS

text

The Dow soared nearly 1,300 points on Monday, its best one-day point gain in history, following a massive rout in the previous week.

NEW YORK, March 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. equities finished sharply higher on Monday with the Dow surging nearly 1,300 points, as Wall Street attempted to recover from last week's steep losses.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 1293.96 points, or 5.09 percent, to 26,703.32. The 30-stock index notched its best one-day point gain in history and its best percentage gain since March 23, 2009, according to FactSet data.

The SP 500 rallied 136.01 points, or 4.6 percent, to 3,090.23. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 384.8 points, or 4.49 percent, to 8,952.17.

Apple shares jumped 9.3 percent, leading the gainers in the Dow.

All of the 11 primary SP 500 sectors gained, with utilities and technology up 5.86 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively, outpacing the rest.

The market movement followed a massive rout in the previous week.

U.S. equities posted huge losses for the week ended Feb. 28, as investors fled the stock market and flocked into safe-haven assets amid risk-averse sentiment.

For the week, the blue-chip Dow plunged nearly 3,600 points, or over 12 percent. The broader SP 500 and the Nasdaq both declined more than 10 percent.

On the data front, U.S. manufacturing purchasing managers' index registered 50.1 percent in February, down 0.8 percentage point from the January reading of 50.9 percent, the Institute for Supply Management reported Monday.

Any reading above 50 percent indicates expansion of the sector. ■