国际英语新闻：Wall Street leaps on first session of second quarter

NEW YORK, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street soared Tuesday, after UBS and Lehman Brothers announced new recapitalization plans and ISM manufacturing index was better than expected.

    UBS revealed a 19 billion U.S. dollars write-down. But the Swiss bank also announced it would need to issue another 15 billion dollars in shares and that Chairman Marcel Ospel had quit.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange April 1, 2008.

 In addition, the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers planed to offer 3 million of convertible preferred shares "in response to investor interest." Lehman also expects to grant the offering's underwriter an option to purchase up to 450,000 additional preferred shares.

    Investors were encouraged by banks' new plan, hoping the bottom for banks to come in.

    Meanwhile, stocks got another boost when the U.S. Institute for Supply Management said its March index of national manufacturing activity rose to a reading of 48.6, better than many analysts had predicted. And data on construction spending for February fell 0.3percent, also coming in better than expected.

    The Dow rose 255.91 to 12,518.80. Broader indexes also advanced. The Standard & Poor's 500 index climbed 28.07 to 1,350.77; and the Nasdaq rose 53.11 to 2,332.21.