TECH STOCKS: Markets Ignore Reasons For Sell-OffTECH STOCKS: Markets Ignore Reasons For Sell-Off

Technology issues led the day Thursday as all major indexes except the Dow industrials finished the day higher. The gains took place on a day when there were plenty of potential reasons for a sell-off--the Justice Department said it would go to court to block Oracle's takeover bid for PeopleSoft, and new unemployment claims and home-sales data were mixed. Struggles in the transportation sector were the primary drag on the Dow, with a report that transportation orders were down 10% coming days after the Pentagon's cancellation of a helicopter program. Other than transportation, new orders for durable goods were up 2% in January.

Amid light volume, winners in the tech sector included Sandisk, which rose $1.41, or 5.9%, to $25.52; Juniper Networks, which rose 69 cents, or 2.7%, to $25.94; Qualcomm, which rose $1.62, or 2.6%, to $63.70; BEA Systems, which rose 11 cents, or 0.8%, to $13.82; and Yahoo, which rose 21 cents, or 0.5%, to $43.55. Big names in the red for the day included Cisco Systems, which fell 23 cents, or nearly 1%, to $23.35; Intel, which fell 12 cents, or 0.4%, to $29.50; and Microsoft, which fell 20 cents, or 0.8%, to $26.50. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock rose 9 cents, or 0.3%, to $36.67 as 69.9 million shares changed hands.

Our information 100 outpaced the other indexes, rising 2.66 points, or 0.8%, to close at 328.48, while the Nasdaq rose 9.59 points, or 0.5%, to 2,032.57. The Dow fell 21.48 points, or 0.2%, to 10,580.14, and the S&P 500 rose 1.24 points, or 0.1%, to 1,144.91.

See the full listing of all the companies in the information 100 and the top 5 percentage winners and losers for the last closing at information.com/stocks.