The Dow and the S&P 500 fell on Monday due to profit taking after a two-month run-up, while news of several share offerings weighed on banks as investors worried about their dilutive impact on current shareholders.

The Nasdaq rose moderately, however, as buying of the shares of big-cap software makers, including Oracle Corp , offset profit-taking.

With government stress tests on big banks out of the way, and after a steep rise since from March lows, investors booked gains on financial issues, sending JPMorgan Chase & Co down 6.2 percent to $36.51 and Bank of America Corp down 7 percent to $13.19.

You could be seeing some sector rotation out of the financials that were up so much. Tech names lead the market when the economy starts to turn, said David Bellantonio, head of trading at Instinet in New York. Tech is outperforming the rest of the market.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> dropped 110.71 points, or 1.29 percent, to 8,463.94. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> fell 13.33 points, or 1.43 percent, to 915.90. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> rose 5.35 points, or 0.31 percent, to 1,744.28.

Major support for the Nasdaq came from German software maker SAP AG after the company's chief executive said it expects glimmers of hope in the global economy in the second half of 2009. SAP's U.S.-listed stock climbed 2.3 percent to $40.15.

Shares of SAP rival Oracle, shot up 2.7 percent to $18.82, and ranked among the Nasdaq's top advancers, along with other tech bellwethers such as Apple Inc , up 1.1 percent at $130.60. Symantec jumped 4.2 percent to $15.51.

The tech sector's resiliency helped propel the Nasdaq to its ninth straight weekly gain on Friday, its longest winning streak since December 1999.

But in the bank sector, U.S. Bancorp lost 6.8 percent to $19.15, Capital One fell 11.3 percent to $27.81, while BB&T Corp fell 6.3 percent $24.69. These banks were the latest to seek additional capital by announcing stock offerings on Monday.

The KBW Bank index <.BKX>, which through Friday had more than doubled since the broader market's March low, shed 4.6 percent as investors booked profits before the dilutive effects of the stock offerings. In comparison, the S&P 500 has risen more than 35 percent from its March 9 closing low.

Besides financials, shares of energy companies exerted some major drag due to retreating oil prices. Chevron fell 3.3 percent to $68.06 and Exxon Mobil shed 1.3 percent to $69.45. Crude oil futures dipped 13 cents, or 0.2 percent, to settle at $58.50 per barrel.

(Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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