TECH STOCKS: Apple One Of Few Gainers On Down Day For Tech Stocks

By Rex Crum, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Apple Inc. was one of the few gainers among tech stocks Thursday after activist investor Carl Icahn called upon Chief Executive Tim Cook to expand the company's efforts to return more of its cash hoard to shareholders.

Icahn, who owns about 53 million shares of Apple's stock, reiterated his support for Cook, yet also said Apple's stock is trading at about half of what it should be, and the company should return more of its $133 billion in cash to its investors.

Apple (AAPL) managed to eke out a gain of 22 cents a share and close at $101.02.

In other Apple-related news, branding consultancy Interbrand said Apple remained the most-valuable brand in the world, with its value climbing 21% from a year ago to $118.9 billion.

Elsewhere, decliners ruled investors' sentiment, with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) receiving some of the worst hits of the day.

AMD fell by 10% to close at $2.95 a share after the chipmaker late Wednesday surprised the market by naming Chief Operating Officer Lisa Su as CEO, replacing Rory Read. Some found the timing of the executive change puzzling, as AMD is set to report quarterly results on Oct. 16.

Losses also came from IBM Corp. (IBM), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), eBay Inc. (EBAY) and Netflix Inc. (NFLX).

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell 90 points, or 2%, to close at 4,378. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) also gave up 2.7%

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