Stock Funds Grab Slight Gains In Week; Energy Provides Lift; Real estate also rallies as high yields lead U.S. fixed-income sectors.(MUTUAL FUNDS)(INVESTMENT TRENDS)

Byline: DAN MOREAU

Mid- and small-cap growth and core stock funds turned in the best, performance in the week of Feb. 20-27, Lipper Inc. reported. But it was modest: Mid-cap core funds rose 0.38% and small-cap core funds gained 0.36%. Core funds invest in both value and growth stocks. Large-cap growth funds, hurt by declines in Microsoft and Cisco, were down 0.2% in the week. It was the worst performance among diversified U.S. stock funds. Upgrade For Intel Some relief came Friday in the form of an earnings upgrade for Intel. And for the year, they are among the better performers, down 3.56% vs. small-cap value's -6.35%.

Multi-cap growth funds were off 2.92% for the year, the best performance. Multi-cap funds can invest in stocks of all sizes.

Overall, the average U.S. diversified stock fund rose 0.08% in the week and was down 4.62% for the year. The Dow was down 0.38% in the week and off 5.47% for the year.

The S&P 500 index was up 0.02% in the week, but was down 4.84% for the year. The Nasdaq 100, benefiting from a tech rebound, was down 0.55% in the week, but just 0.87% for the year.

Among leading industry groups were Food -- Meat Products, up 6.2% in the week; Oil & Gas -- Canadian Exploration & Production, up 5.7%; and Energy -- Other, which rose 4.8%.

Peabody Energy, the coal producer, was among the stocks that make up the latter group. Peabody has an Earnings Per Share Rating of 82 and a Relative Strength Rating of 75.