By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gains across the board lifted the
tech sector Wednesday, with advances from Apple Inc., Groupon Inc.
and optical networking company Infinera Corp.
Apple (AAPL) rose 52 cents to close at $536.61, while Groupon
(GRPN) climbed almost 4% to $8.60 a share. The online daily deal
and e-commerce company took its weeklong "Groupon Searchlight"
promotional events to San Francisco Wednesday as part of its
ongoing efforts to make itself more of a destination for e-commerce
along the lines of Amazon.
Several other Internet-based companies also saw their shares
rise Wednesday, with gains from Yelp Inc. (YELP), up by 3% at
$92.79; Pandora Media Inc. (P), which rose almost 4% to $35.54 and
Zulily Inc. (ZU), which ended the day with a gain of almost 9% at
$63.40.
Twitter Inc. (TWTR) rose almost 1% to close at $54.50 and showed
no ill effects from what the company called a "service issue" that
shut down the messaging and information site for most of an hour on
Tuesday.
Infinera (INFN) climbed almost 15%, to $9.71, as Goldman Sachs
analyst Simona Jankowski upgraded the stock to buy from
neutral.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) edged up by 25 cents a share to close at
$38.27. Late Tuesday, the world's largest software company said it
appointed ValueAct Capital president Mason Morfit to the Microsoft
board of directors. Microsoft also declared its annual quarterly
dividend payment of 28 cents a share, payable on June 12.
3D Systems Inc. (DDD) nearly got back into positive territory,
gave up 51 cents a share to close at $61.72. Barron's mentioned 3D
Systems in an article over the weekend that was critical of the 3-D
printing technology industry.
King Digital Entertainment Plc also garnered some attention as
the maker of the popular "Candy Crush Saga" mobile phone game set a
range of $21 to $24 a share for its upcoming IPO, which is expected
in late March.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) ended the day with a gain of
16 points to close at 4,323.
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