THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 17, 1996 TAG: 9607170327
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 45 lines
Rattled by the stock market's extraordinary volatility, Hampton Roads investors flooded brokerage firms with phone calls Tuesday but did very little selling, stockbrokers in the region said.
``I had all buyers,'' said Larry Waters of Scott & Stringfellow Inc.'s Virginia Beach office. ``They bought everything from banks to technology stocks, even some tech stocks that made me gulp.''
At the Norfolk branch of Wheat First Butcher Singer, the volume of business was slightly greater than normal and most of it involved purchases, said Thomas E. Love, head of the office.
``A lot of callers lived through the October 1987 debacle and realized that the worst thing you could do is sell'' in the midst of frenzied trading, Love said.
After plunging 167 points Tuesday afternoon, the Dow Jones industrial average not only rebounded but posted a gain of 9.25 Tuesday on record volume.
Bewildered by these wide swings, some clients needed reassuring but displayed no indication of panicking, veteran brokers said.
``Everybody was astonished by the volatility,'' Waters said. ``They couldn't understand what was happening.''
At the Norfolk branch of A.G. Edwards & Sons, ``We haven't seen anyone say `Get me out,' something we've seen in the past,'' said Aubrey Ellis, co-manager of the office.
Brokers in his office gathered Monday to formulate investment strategies if stock prices continued falling, Ellis said. ``We sat down as a group to discuss how we should approach this thing and decided the answer was to buy quality stocks,'' he said.
Ron Dilks, manager of the Norfolk office of Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc., said most of the activity in his office involved purchases of stocks that had been battered, including some technology issues.
``Some people felt real brave when the Dow was down 100. When it was down 160, they felt less brave,'' he said.
Dilks and other brokers were cautious about predicting the market's future moves and their clients' reactions. ``I don't think it's finished,'' Dilks said of the market's retreat.
At Scott & Stringfellow, Waters said most of his clients have weathered previous downturns and have been reluctant to sell. So far.
``If the market goes down another 500 points, I don't know if they will continue to feel that way,'' he said. by CNB