Sep. 27--The Asbury Park Press/Bloomberg 75 index fell about 3 percent last week on data that shows the economy isn't recovering quickly.

The index, made up of 75 companies either headquartered at the Shore or with significant operations in New Jersey, was at 105.09 Friday at 5 p.m., down 3.33 points.

Sixty-seven companies declined, seven companies advanced and one was unchanged.

The index is up 9.2 percent since the beginning of the year.

The companies with the biggest declines were: Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., $4.02, down 59 cents, or 12.8 percent; Provident Financial Services Inc., $10.31, down $1.26, or 10.9 percent; Avis Budget Group Inc., $12.28, down $1.33, or 9.77 percent; The Macerich Co., $30.52, down $3.17, or 9.41 percent; and Prudential Financial Inc., $47.77, down $4.92, or 9.34 percent.

Red Bank-based Hovnanian, New Jersey's biggest homebuilder, declined after the government said new home sales rose just 0.7 percent in August, lower than Wall Street's expectations. Another report by a trade group said sales of existing home fell 2.7 percent in August.

Newark-based Prudential said it's looking for acquisitions in Japan and reiterated it may fund deals by issuing debt or equity. U.S. life insurance sales to individuals dropped 23 percent in the first half of the year, the biggest six-month decline since 1942, a trade group said in August.

The companies with the biggest gains were: Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., $8.48, up 81 cents, or 10.6 percent; Continental Airlines Inc., $16.81, up 88 cents, or 5.52 percent; Alcatel-Lucent, $4.44, up 12 cents, or 2.78 percent; Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc., $4.71, up 7 cents, or 1.51 percent; and Verizon Communications Inc., $29.94, up 35 cents, or 1.18 percent.

Houston-based Continental, the biggest carrier at Newark Liberty International Airport, rose. Fitch Ratings wrote last week that it saw early indications of stabilization in the U.S. airline industry. But it said the sector remains fragile.

And Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent's chief executive officer, Ben Verwaayen, told the Wall Street Journal last week that the chances that the telecommunications equipment maker would be taken over by a Chinese company were "not more than yesterday, or the day before."

--Bloomberg News Service and the Associated Press contributed to this story.

-----

To see more of the Asbury Park Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.app.com

Copyright (c) 2009, Asbury Park Press, N.J.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

HOV, PFS, CAR, MAC, PRU, GAP, CAL, ALU, JTX, VZ,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.