June 30 (Reuters) - On its road to recovery from a more
than 12-year low hit in early March, the S&P 500 stock index
.SPX on Tuesday wrapped up its best quarterly performance in
more than a decade.

Banks and insurers outperformed the other major sectors in
the last three months, after U.S. financial institutions
received billions of dollars from the government to stay
afloat.

The worst-performing sectors in the quarter were those
generally labeled as defensive plays. The bullish sentiment
that has permeated the market led investors to buy in growth
sectors during the S&P 500's 40 percent climb from the March
lows.

So far in 2009, only three sectors are positive. And the
financial group, despite its whopping 35.1 percent rise in the
second quarter, is not one of them.

Following is a table with the second-quarter and
year-to-date performance of the S&P 500 and its 10 major
industry sectors.

Q2 YTD
INDEX / SECTOR PCT CHANGE PCT CHANGE
_____________________________________________________________
S&P Financial 35.08 -4.76
S&P Information Technology 19.35 24.08
S&P Industrials 18.01 -7.68
S&P Consumer Discretionary 17.65 7.52
S&P Materials 15.53 12.28
S&P Energy 10.06 -3.24
S&P Consumer Staples 8.87 -3.44
S&P Utilities 8.83 -4.08
S&P Health Care 8.27 -0.96
S&P Telecoms Services 1.90 -6.73
-------------------------------------------------------------
S&P 500 index .SPX 15.22 1.78