US SMALL/MIDCAPS-Earnings, monthly sales help consumer stocks

By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - A slew of solid corporate earnings and monthly same-store sales results bolstered small- and midcap stocks on Thursday, led by consumer discretionary shares. Midcap outdoor media advertiser Lamar Advertising Co surged 17.4 percent to $29.43 after reporting a narrow-than-expected quarterly loss and forecast fourth-quarter revenue above expectations. The S&P MidCap Consumer Discretionary index gained 1.3 percent. The S&P SmallCap Consumer Discretionary index advanced 2.2 percent, aided by a 16.4 percent rise in K-Swiss Inc after narrower-than-expected earnings and strong third-quarter sales results from Children's Place Retail Stores Inc, which added 7.9 percent to $34.97. "The smaller companies are coming through with earnings," said Kevin Kruszenski, head of listed trading at KeyBanc Capital Markets in Cleveland. "The same store sales data was pretty good as well. That's certainly helping move those around." Buildings products maker Gibraltar Industries Inc jumped 15.8 percent to $13.19 after posting better-than-expected quarterly results on cost cutting and a continued reduction in debt, helping to push the S&P SmallCap Industrials index up 3 percent. For details, see There were also disappointments among consumer discretionary stocks as several retailers failed to meet Wall Street expectations. Midcap teen apparel Aeropostale Inc tumbled 13.8 percent to $32.77 after its October sales results and was subsequently downgraded by BMO Capital to "market perform" from "outperform." Smallcap Network Equipment Technologies Inc rocketed 31.9 percent to $4.30 in the wake of strong quarterly results from Cisco Systems Inc and speculation the company may be a takeover target. "Cisco has made about four acquisitions recently, Network Equipment is a $125 million company, the thinking is a 'who do they buy next?' type of thing," added Kruszenski. The S&P MidCap 400 index gained 1.7 percent while the S&P SmallCap 600 index jumped 2.4 percent. By comparison, the large cap S&P 500 index added 1.6 percent. (Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Andrew Hay) Keywords: MARKETS STOCKS/SMALLMID ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging:rm://[e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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