(MONEY Magazine) – All benchmark indexes gained ground over the past month, with the Nasdaq's 4% jump leading the rally. The S&P's information technology sector also spiked. Tech surged in part thanks to widely held Cisco Systems. The Internet equipment giant, whose share price is up 16.7% for the month ended Aug. 24., recently announced plans to acquire on-demand video software company Arroyo Video Systems. Widely held tech companies Intel and Microsoft also saw gains.

S&P 500 SECTOR AVERAGES

TOP-PERFORMING STOCKS

BENCHMARKS

S&P 500 RATIOS

P/E Current 17.3

DIVIDEND YIELD Corrent 1.91%

HIGHEST-YIELDING DOW STOCKS

MOST WIDELY HELD STOCKS

NOTES AND SOURCES: Unless otherwise noted, data as of Aug. 24 from Lipper, New York; 877-955-4773. Index levels from Bloomberg. Bond index data from Lehman Brothers. Stock data from Thomson/Baseline. Monthly S&P 500 ratios from Standard & Poor's. Ratios are based on previous four quarters of earnings. Top-Performing Stocks limited to companies with market capitalization of at least $500 million. Most Widely Held Stocks ranked by largest accounts at Merrill Lynch. N.A.: Not applicable or not available. [1] Annualized. [2] Price change only.