Local stocks follow the lead of national markets in drop.

Byline: Dean Calbreath

Feb. 28--During Wall Street's drastic plunge yesterday, stocks of San Diego companies mirrored the downward path of the broad market.

In a day when the Dow Jones industrial average, Nasdaq Composite Index and Standard & Poor's 500 index lost between 3.4 and 3.9 percent of their value, the Bloomberg San Diego stock index suffered a 3.75 percent loss.

Some San Diego stocks fell far lower than the market average.

Qualcomm shares slid more than 5 percent; Maxwell Technologies, NuVasive medical devices and Biomed Realty Trust lost more than 6 percent; PICO Holdings and Wireless Facilities dropped more than 7 percent; and WebSideStory dropped more than 9 percent.

In all, 105 out of the 108 stocks on the San Diego stock index lost ground. The index includes …