TECH STOCKS: Apple And Netflix Among Gainers As Tech Stocks Rise

By Rex Crum, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks edged up Tuesday, with gains from Apple Inc. and Netflix Inc., as the sector tried to make up for ground lost during the prior session's big retreat.

Apple (AAPL) rose almost 1%, to $101.87 as industry analysts expressed more opinions on the likely impact of the company's new Apple Pay digital payment service. Susquehanna analyst Chris Caso said he thinks Apple Pay "is going to be a hit," and said it was easier to use than Google Inc.'s Google Wallet offering. Apple introduced Apple Pay earlier this month at an event in which it also unveiled the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

An Apple representative also told CNBC that it was "not true" that the company was planning to shut down its recently acquired Beats Music streaming service.

Gains also came from Netflix Inc. (NFLX), Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Facebook Inc. (FB).

In Alibaba Group (BABA) news, the Chinese Internet leader's recently-offered shares slipped by 1.7% to $88.33. However, Alibaba, which raised $25 billion during its IPO last week, is still worth enough to make founder and executive chairman Jack Ma the richest man in China, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose almost 3 points to 4,530 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) also edged into positive territory. Both indexes include a significant number of tech stocks.

(Read more about the day's market activity in Movers & Shakers http://www.marketwatch.com/storyno-meta-for-guid.).

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