The Night Watch: AES Fights Back

AES

(AES) - Get Report

left everyone else behind in the late session Wednesday.

The electricity provider was easily the most active stock, gaining back 3.5% to $4.40. The gain was somewhat mitigated by the fact that AES, which earlier this week detailed plans to sell some assets and cut capital spending, has been hammered in recent sessions because of concerns about the company's debt.

In regular action, the stock dropped 10.5% to $4.25 after Moody's warned that it might downgrade the company's credit rating. In extra trading on the Instinet platform, about 2.1 million shares of AES were traded, accounting for nearly half of the total volume of the top-20 volume movers.

Nextel

(NXTL)

was moving higher the day before its scheduled earnings release, gaining 2.7% to $4.50.

3Com

(COMS)

was one of the late session's biggest losers, falling 7.2% to $4.75.

Widely held tech shares were active in what was primarily a higher session after the close, as momentum from regular trading carried over.

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

was up 0.4%, and

WorldCom

(WCOM)

was gaining 0.3%.

Oracle

(ORCL) - Get Report

was higher by 0.8%, and the

Nasdaq 100 Unit Trust

(QQQ) - Get Report

was ahead by 0.2%.

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

and

Sun

(SUNW) - Get Report

were each up 0.2%, while

Ericsson

(ERICY)

and

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

were flat.