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Trib 30 stocks drop to 4-month low

It was a bad month for stocks of Pittsburgh-area companies, as falling oil prices and a strengthening dollar roiled markets and sent the Trib 30 index and broader U.S. indices lower.

The Trib 30 closed Friday at 430.2, down 4.7 percent from last month and dropping to a four-month low.

Stocks losing value over the month outpaced gainers by a wide margin, with 27 companies falling and three rising.

Allegheny Technologies Inc., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Black Box Corp., First Commonwealth Financial Corp., Kennametal Inc., MSA Safety Inc. and Wesco International Inc. notched declines of more than 10 percent in January.

Seven companies logged new 52-week lows during the month, including Allegheny Technologies, EQT Corp., Kenna­metal, MSA and U.S. Steel Corp., as investors soured on companies with exposure to falling oil prices.

Energy companies are pulling back spending on oil and natural gas production in response to crude oil's steep decline in the past seven months. The cuts by drillers are leading to slack demand for steel pipe, cutting tools and other products made by companies in Western Pennsylvania.

Four companies — Ansys Inc., FirstEnergy Corp., PPG Industries Inc. and Thermo Fischer Scientific Inc. — reached new 52-week highs.

The Trib 30 is an equal-weighted index of stocks of companies headquartered or dominant in Western Pennsylvania. An investor who divided $100,000 equally among the 30 stocks on Dec. 31, 1999, had a portfolio worth $430,200 as of Friday.

For the month, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.7 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 3 percent and the Nasdaq composite index declined 2.1 percent.

Alex Nixon is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7928 or anixon@tribweb.com.