Jun. 7--Gainers outpaced decliners by more than a two-to-one margin last week on the Asbury Park Press/Bloomberg 75 index.

The index, made up of 75 companies that are either headquartered at the Shore or have significant operations in New Jersey, was at 94.25 Friday at 5 p.m., up 2.10 points, or 2.28 percent.

Fifty-four companies advanced, 20 companies declined and one company was unchanged.

The index has declined 2.1 percent since the beginning of the year.

The companies with the biggest percentage gains were: Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc., $6.25, up $2.28, or 57.4 percent; Commvault Systems Inc., $15.60, up $3.25, or 26.3 percent; The Macerich Co., $20.71, up $3.83, or 22.7 percent; Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., $4.78, up 82 cents, or 20.7 percent; and Continental Airlines Inc., $10.67, up $1.35, or 14.5 percent.

Parsippany-based Jackson Hewitt, the nation's second-biggest tax-preparation firm, named Harry Buckley, the former president and chief executive officer of H&R Block Tax Services Inc., to run the company while it seeks "strategic alternatives."

The firm ousted Michael C. Yerington as CEO and used language in a statement that typically means a company may be sold.

Houston-based Continental, the biggest carrier at Newark Liberty International Airport, and other U.S. carriers may rise in the coming weeks as investors bet reductions in capacity will prop up fares, analysts said last week.

The companies with the biggest percentage losses were: Gannett Co. Inc., $4.22, down 55 cents, or 11.5 percent; Hess Corp., $59.17, down $7.42, or 11.1 percent; PNC Financial Services Inc., $42.02, down $3.53, or 7.75 percent; Osteotech Inc., $3.89, down 30 cents, or 7.16 percent; and Merck & Co. Inc., $26.07, down $1.51, or 5.47 percent.

McLean, Va.-based Gannett, the parent company of the Asbury Park Press, and other newspaper companies saw newspaper print advertising sales plunge 30 percent during the first quarter, the biggest quarterly decline in at least 38 years, the Newspaper Association of America reported.

And Readington Township-based Merck, a drug maker, said its experimental heart failure treatment, acquired in a $366.4 million deal in 2007, didn't save lives or ease symptoms in a 2,033-patient study.

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