Building Materials Companies Post Gains

NEW YORK (AP) — Building materials and products makers rose Tuesday, boosted by signs of a strengthening global economy and an analyst's upgrade of shares of a large home improvement products company.

A weekend pledge by finance ministers of the world's 20 biggest economies to support the global recovery with stimulus efforts buoyed the markets.

Also, news about corporate takeovers cheered investors. Deutsche Telekom AG and France Telecom SA announced plans to combine their British mobile phone units. Cadbury PLC rejected a takeover bid from Kraft Foods Inc., but the interest in acquisitions is being seen as a welcome sign for the economy.

Meanwhile, analyst Keith Hughes of SunTrust Robinson upgraded the stock of Taylor, Mich.-based Masco Corp., which sells home-improvement products, to "buy" from "neutral." He initiated a price target of $18.

A "bottoming process is developing, particularly in U.S. renovation residential demand," which accounts for between 60 percent and 70 percent of the company's revenue, and in construction activity, he wrote in a client note.

Masco's products sold to homebuilders (and) it now has an improved mix of "big- and small-ticket renovation products," some of which will strengthen before homebuilding turns up strongly, Hughes said.

In afternoon trading, Masco 66 cents, or 5.1 percent, to $13.74, Vulcan Materials Co. gained $2.26, or 4.6 percent, to $51.47 and NCI Building Systems Inc. added 10 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $2.71.

The S&P Construction Materials index rose 4.6 percent.