York Stock Exchange

HealthCare Financial Partners Inc. of Chevy Chase said yesterday that it will shift from the Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange to reduce the volatility of its stock.The company expects to begin trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol HCF on Dec. 31."We believe that listing our shares on the New York Stock Exchange will provide for efficient execution of orders, and offer the potential for less intra-day volatility in the price of our stock," said John Delaney, chairman and chief executive of HealthCare Financial.

MOSCOW -- Would-be investment bankers, stockbrokers and traders of the Soviet Union got a rare chance this week to grill American experts representing the New York Stock Exchange about everything from savings bonds to insider trading.The opening day of a Soviet stock market is at least several months away. But Soviet financiers invited the New York Stock Exchange, that bastion of capitalism, to tell them all they could about buying low and selling high."We're starved for information about financial markets," Alla Y. Seliverstov, a lecturer at Moscow Commercial Institute, said after a session on the public debt market.

NEW YORK -- William H. Donaldson, the new chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, outlined a bleak future for the nation's capital markets yesterday, warning that increasingly "fractionalized" trading could lead to poorer supervision and lower values for stocks.Trades once done for retail investors on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange are increasingly being consummated in-house by major brokerage firms. Major institutions also are starting to bypass the exchange floor by using electronic systems or overseas markets, Mr. Donaldson said.

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks suffered a late decline yesterday as a jury dealt the tobacco industry a stunning defeat in a product liability case, a decision that sent shares of Philip Morris Cos. and other cigarette companies reeling.The slump came after a Florida jury found B.A.T Industries PLC unit Brown & Williamson negligent in the case of a smoker who developed cancer.Losses in Exxon Corp. and dozens of computer-related stocks worsened the slide.The Dow Jones industrial average slumped 32.18 to 5,681.

Alex. Brown Inc. said yesterday that it will move trading in its stock to the New York Stock Exchange, making shares of the nation's oldest investment banking company available in the nation's best-known financial marketplace for the first time. Big Board trading is expected to begin next month under the symbol "AB."The company's shares now trade in the over-the-counter market, as they have since Alex.Brown went public in 1986."The majority of publicly traded firms in the securities industry are listed on the NYSE," said Chief Executive A. B. Krongard.

NEW YORK -- With the opening bell, the nation's oldest investment bank began trading on the nation's oldest exchange yesterday morning as Alex. Brown Inc. partner emeritus Ben Griswold III bought 100 shares in his company on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.The 80-year-old Mr. Griswold was there with a half-dozen other senior Alex. Brown officials, including his son, company Chairman Ben Griswold IV.Mr. Griswold paid $22.50 for each of his shares, which now trades on the NYSE under the symbol "AB."

NEW YORK -- Stocks were sharply higher at mid-day, encouraged by a rally in the bond market after days of steep losses.At noon on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 63.63 points at 3,656.98.Volume on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange was 179.79 million shares, compared with 161.14 million at the same time in the previous session.Advancing shares swamped declines about 7 to 1 on the NYSE, with 2,026 up, 286 down and 400 unchanged.The NYSE composite index was up 3.91 at 247.05.

'TC NEW YORK -- A delayed reaction to Genesis Health Ventures Inc.'s planned purchase of a privately held nursing home company in Towson apparently sent shares of the company higher yesterday in active trading on the New York Stock Exchange.Market players said investors were finally digesting the pending merger with Meridian Healthcare, which is widely considered a boon for Genesis, with headquarters in Kennett Square, Pa.Meridian is "a high-quality chain of nursing homes," said Michael Leconey of RAS Securities.

Beginning in the Wednesday, May 31, editions of The Sun, stock prices in the listings for the New York, Nasdaq and American stock exchanges, as well as those in the Sun Stocks, will appear in decimals rather than fractions. A recent listing for Legg Mason Inc., for example, would read 41.9375, down .5625, instead of 41 15/16, down 9/16. The change, which was approved by the New York Stock Exchange in June 1997, means that the spreads -- the difference between prices that investors can get when selling a stock and the price that brokers will charge them to buy it -- are likely to narrow.

NEW YORK -- The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq stock market plan to reopen today -- ending the longest interruption of U.S. trading since before World War II. Across the nation many companies and individuals were encouraging their peers to be ready to buy stock today to prevent a sharp sell-off that would reduce share prices. The reopening of the Wall Street trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange is expected to provide a big psychological boost in the city and far beyond. In addition to getting a critical piece of the country's financial system back on its feet, restarting the markets will be an important symbol of the nation's recovery from last week's terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, market and government officials said.