On Wall Street, after a week of heavy trading and political uncertainty, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.3 percent for the week, but the technology-laden Nasdaq composite index ended the week down 1.74 percent. The Washington Post-Bloomberg regional stock index of 264 companies fell again last week, to 166.83, from 167.71 the week before.

Beating the tech slump last week was USInternetworking Inc. of Annapolis, up 22 percent to $3.97 a share. The Web hosting company said it would receive more than $300 million in financing from a group of tech companies, including Microsoft Corp.

Ciena Corp., a fiber-optic-network equipment provider, rose 15.9 percent last week, to $104.44 a share, after announcing Monday that it was selected to provide equipment to a telecom firm that operates in 12 European nations. Ciena's stock closed Friday at $104.40 a share.

Antex Biologics of Gaithersburg began to regain its footing last week, despite reporting a third-quarter loss of $1.9 million, compared with a loss of $659,000 in the same period last year. Revenue in the quarter was $57,000, down from $597,000 in the same quarter of 1999. The company, which makes products that treat infections and related diseases, said in a statement that product development was on schedule. Antex's stock closed Friday at $3.38 a share, up 26 percent for the week.

Watson Wyatt & Co. Holdings of Washington finished the week up nearly 10 percent, to $21.81 a share, after announcing that revenue rose 17 percent in the third quarter. The human resources and consulting firm completed its 6.4 million share initial public offering last month.

The week's worst-performing companies included Teligent Inc. of Vienna, which continued to struggle after earlier this month reporting a third-quarter loss of $228.1 million and announcing a layoff of 780 workers. Its stock fell 28 percent to $4.31 a share.

Corvis of Columbia fell 27 percent last week to $33.31 a share. The per-share value of the producer of fiber-optic network equipment has fallen more than $80 from a 52-week high of $114.75 in August, shortly after the company's IPO.

Network Access Solutions Corp. of Herndon continued to sink last week, closing at $1.56 a share Friday, a loss of 24 percent for the week. The company, which earlier this month announced that it would lay off 25 percent of its staff, hit a 52-week low of 1.06 a share on Thursday. The company's 52-week high of $40 a share occurred in February, but since falling to less than $3 a share it no longer qualifies for listing among the regional index's weekly performers.

Rockville-based drug developer EntreMed Inc. said its much-awaited cancer drug was deemed safe in preliminary tests, but its stock fell ill, losing 22 percent last week to close at $27.13 a share.