Market Posts Modest Gains; Dow Up 4.04 : Activity Centers in Likely Targets for Takeovers

NEW YORK —  The stock market chugged ahead Thursday, posting its third consecutive gain.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials rose 4.04 to 1,335.13, bringing its gain over the past three days to 17.48 points.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange came to 85.66 million shares, against 88.53 million Wednesday.

Trading has been light all week, with most activity concentrated in stocks rumored as takeover candidates or involved in corporate buy-back plans.

Wall Street hopes that the pace of business activity will pick up over the second half of the year will get a test of sorts today, when the government reports on the index of leading economic indicators for July, as well as the nation’s trade balance for July.

Westinghouse Electric led the active list and climbed 1 to 39 1/2. The stock jumped 4 5/8 on Wednesday on news that the company plans to buy back as many as 25 million of its shares and is considering selling its cable-television business.

Union Carbide, which announced a restructuring plan Wednesday, rose 1 1/8 to 56 3/4 in active trading.

Big Loser

Kansas Gas & Electric fell 3 5/8 to 14 1/2 for the day’s biggest percentage loss among NYSE issues. The company said it will face serious financial problems unless it is granted a rate increase large enough to cover its stake in a nuclear power plant.

Kansas City Power & Light, which has a large investment in the same plant, dropped 1 5/8 to 20 3/4.

Middle South Utilities rose 3/8 to 9 3/8. The holding company omitted its quarterly dividend, but the move had been widely expected since several subsidiaries had announced that they were not making dividend payments to the parent concern.

Grumman climbed 1 3/4 to 34 5/8. It said it knew of no reason for the activity.

Large blocks of 10,000 or more shares traded on the NYSE totaled 1,758, compared to 1,785 on Wednesday

In the bond markets, prices were mixed as traders appeared to shrug off another sharp rise in the basic money supply.

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department said it sold $8.8 billion in 52-week bills at an average yield of 7.36%. That compared to 7.60% at the previous auction and was the lowest for such an issue since the 7.09% of July 9. Bidding was heavy.

Later in the secondary market, yields on one-year bills closed at 7.39%, down 1 basis point from Wednesday. Yields on three-month Treasury bills fell 2 basis points to 7.05%, and six-month bills were unchanged from Wednesday at 7.19%.

In the secondary market for Treasury bonds, prices of short-term governments were unchanged, and intermediate and long-term maturities were unchanged to down 6/32 point.

In corporate trading, industrials and utilities fell 1/8 point in light trading.

Among tax-exempt municipal bonds, general obligations rose 3/8 point in heavy activity and revenue bonds were up 1/2 point in moderate trading.