TECH STOCKS: Techs Advance As Brocade Soars On Possible Sale

By Benjamin Pimentel

The tech sector made a broad advance Monday as shares of Brocade Communications Systems Inc. soared on a published report that the networking-gear maker could be placed up for sale.

Brocade (BRCD) traded as much as 19% higher on an intraday basis and the shares gained by nearly 15% in afternoon dealings, rallying after The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported that the company was considering selling itself.

The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose 0.9% to 2,066, while the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) added 1.2% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was up 1.8%.

The tech sector got a boost from other players, including SanDisk Corp. (SNDK) and Research In Motion (RIMM). Shares of SanDisk rose 4%, while RIM moved up 2.5% on the session.

Shares of Convergys Corp. (CVG) also jumped, rising more than 8% as Citigroup upgraded the services and software company's rating to buy.

Meanwhile, shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) recovered from earlier losses brought on when FBR Capital Markets downgraded the chip maker to market perform from outperform, citing a "potential PC build pull-in." AMD traded more than 2% higher at last check.

In downgrading the company, analyst Craig Berger said that, based on checks with contacts, "October builds will be the peak for PCs in 2009, whereas, usually November is the peak build month."

"While we do not want to get overly bearish ... given improving global demand and unknown holiday sell-through trends, we feel these actions are prudent given peaking near-term momentum, more downstream inventory to digest [at least in China], and a potentially overheated PC supply chain," Berger wrote.