11.   Brokers said cement companies benefited from foreign buying on expectations that construction activity will increase and earnings from the first half of the year will be higher.

12.   Buying shares in cement companies allows investors to benefit from that spending while skirting the risks associated with individual real estate or other construction projects.

13.   Cement companies also fell.

14.   Cement companies Apasco SA and Tolmex SA, along with construction companies Grupo Tribasa SA and Grupo Sidek SA led the decline.

15.   Cement companies Corporacion Cementera Argentina, or Corcemar, and Juan Minetti were among the biggest gainers.

16.   Cement companies dropped amid concern falling prices from an approaching oversupply and increasing competition will hurt earnings.

17.   Cement companies gained after Mexican cement company Cemex said it would by Cementos Diamante.

18.   Cement companies tumbled on expectations profits will be squeezed by a glut, especially if construction slows.

19.   Cement companies were among a handful of decliners.

20.   Cemex, a Mexican cement company, and Merrill Lynch both did the same basic thing.