Stocks Take Cue from Bull Run
Stocks Take Cue from Bull Run
Washington, DC - Kitchen and bath industry
stocks took their cue from the record-setting bull run on Wall
Street, flexing their muscles in a display of strength as 1999
wound to a close.
The performance of 49 key stocks of building products
manufacturers, distributors and retailers - as tracked in
Kitchen & Bath Design News' exclusive monthly Stock
Index - revealed a strong sense of underlying confidence among
investors, rising 191.68 points, or 9.75%, to close the trading
period from November 5-December 5 at 2156.90. By comparison, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 3.27%, to close out the year at
9311.19, only a precursor to the explosive rise in the Dow during
January.
Of the 49 stocks tracked by K&BDN, gainers outpaced
losers by nearly a 3-to-1 ratio, with eight of the stocks
reaching
new 52-week highs and only four plummeting to new lows.
Leading gainers for the period included Daltile, General Electric
and The Home Depot. Armstrong World Industries, Knape & Vogt
and Stanley Works were among the biggest losers.
Editor's Note: Several of the companies listed in
this report are parent companies of - or have other financial ties
to - remodeling industry product suppliers. The following is a list
of those companies and their affiliations: Armstrong World
Industries (Triangle Pacific, Bruce Hardwood and Hartco Flooring);
Black & Decker (Price Pfister, Kwikset and DeWalt); Electrolux
AB (Frigidaire Co.); Fortune Brands (Aristokraft, Moen,
Decorá and Schrock Cabinetry Co.); Griffon Corp. (CLOPAY);
International Paper (Nevamar); Knape & Vogt (Feeny Mfg.); Masco
Corp. (Merillat Industries, KraftMaid, Delta Faucet, StarMark,
Fieldstone, Kindred Industries, Peerless Faucets, Aqua Glass/Huppe,
Melard Mfg. , Zenith Products and Baldwin Hardware); Maytag Co.
(Jenn-Air and Magic Chef); Nortek Inc. (Broan, NuTone and
Universal-Rundle); Pentair (Porter-Cable); Premark Int'l (Wilsonart
Int'l and Florida Tile); Raytheon Co. (Modern Maid, Amana and
Caloric Corp.); Tomkins (LASCO Bathware and Pegler Ltd.); U.S.
Industries (Jacuzzi
Whirlpool Bath); Whirlpool Corp. (KitchenAid and Roper).
