1.   Banking issues gained as speculation intensified that further mergers would sweep the industry.

2.   Many investors buy shares of insurance companies because mergers are sweeping the industry.

3.   But Dean Witter, while huge, is not considered to be in the forefront of competitive changes sweeping the industry.

4.   But in recent years, as consolidation has swept the industry and the number of independent contractors has dwindled, prices have risen.

5.   But more importantly, BellSouth has only recently revised its long-standing aloofness from the merger mania sweeping the industry.

6.   But three years after the new-media wave first swept the industry, it has left some woozy players in its wake.

7.   But the shares have not yet swept the industry.

8.   But with deregulation sweeping the industry, Western and others are in the throes of reorganization and change.

9.   Prices have been buoyed by expectations that the consolidation sweeping the industry has made most securities firms takeover candidates.

10.   State attorneys general warned Tuesday that consumers could face fraud and deceptive advertising from electric utility companies as deregulation sweeps the industry.