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US markets moved higher Monday, led by healthcare stocks as they rallied after President Obama’s expanded healthcare plan was passed in the US House of Representatives. Under the plan, despite the big pharmaceutical companies being required to pay new fees, they will have access to up to 32 million new customers.

Weighing on the market were lingering doubts over the ability of Greece to repay its debts.

Meanwhile many investors are staying on the sidelines at least until more economic news is out later in the week, including existing home sales and durable goods orders.

The Dow Jones gained 43.91 points, or 0.41%, to 10,785.89, the S&P 500 advanced 5.91 points, 0.51%, to 1,165.81 and the NASDAQ put on 20.99 points, or 0.88%, to 2,395.40.

Among the major pharmaceutical stocks, Merck, Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb added 0.6%, 1.4% and 1.8% respectively.

Another sector of the market, hospital operators were the biggest gainers on the prospect of having more customers to treat.

Tenet Healthcare spiked 9%, while Community Health Systems rallied 6.2%.

Specifically for the insurers in the market, some rallied, while other fell. Cigna climbed 0.5%, while Humana was 1.4% below the line.

Among the financial stocks, Citigroup climbed 3.6%, while Bank of America was 0.8% higher.

Goldman Sachs shed 1%, while JPMorgan shares were 0.7% dearer.

In tech news, Google has re-routed Chinese mainland traffic through their Hong Kong servers, effectively ending censorship through the search engine as their spat over computer hacking with the Chinese government continues.

Its shares lost just 0.5%, while rival Yahoo! retreated 0.6%. It was a flat day overall for the sector with Apple the biggest mover among the big software stocks, adding 1.1%.

In other stocks, Caterpillar, whose CEO last week attacked the proposed healthcare bill saying it would cost his company $100 million, saw its shares climb 1%.

In oil stocks Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips shares fell 0.1%, 0.7% and 0.5% respectively.

NYMEX light crude oil for April delivery rose US47c to US$81.15 a barrel.

COMEX gold for April delivery fell US$8 to US$1,099.60 per ounce.

European Markets

A decline among the financial stocks was countered a rally from the healthcare sector Monday with many European markets finishing the day near where they started. In Europe eyes were still turned to Greece as doubts remain over any European aid package to the country.

The benchmark UK FTSE 100 lost 5.58 points or 0.10% to 5,644.54, while the French CAC40 put on 2.56, or 0.07% to 3,928.00. The German DAX climbed 5.07, or 0.08% to 5,987.50.

The decline in banking stocks came after an International Monetary Fund official said many western economies faced serious problems repaying their debt.

In the UK, Barclays lost 1.1% and Royal Bank of Scotland was down 0.5%.

On the continent, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas drifted 0.2% and 0.3% lower.

As with their US counterparts, many pharmaceutical stocks gained ground, including GlaxoSmithKline and Astrazeneca, which put on 0.6% and 1% respectively.

However Swiss giant Novartis dipped 0.3%.

Among the miners, BHP Billiton and Anglo American were both 0.8% higher, while Rio Tinto was 1.6% above the line.

Many investors Monday turned to the more defensive food and tobacco industries.

British Foods and Nestle climbed 0.3% and 1.4% respectively.

Japanese Stocks

The Nikkei was closed for public holiday

Hong Kong Markets

The Hang Seng fell Monday as investors reacted negatively to India raising its interest rates. Banks were weaker, while property stocks, which have been running hot this year also lost ground.

The Hang Seng fell 437.57, or 2.05% to 20,933.25.

Bank of China was 1.5% lower, while HSBC slumped 2.1%. ICBC was 2.7% weaker.

Among property stocks, China Overseas Land lost 3.8%. China Resources Land gave up 1.7%. Hang Lung Properties, which gets 40% of sales from China, lost 4.6%.

Resource stocks were also weaker, including PetroChina which retreated 2.7%

Chinalco tumbled 4.1% on softer metal prices. Jiangxi Copper retreated 1.9%.

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Market Watch by egoli