By Rex Crum, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gains from Facebook Inc. stood out in the tech sector Thursday as Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg used a company event to show off Facebook's new efforts to make inroads in the mobile-phone market.

Facebook (FB) shares rose 73 cents, or almost 3%, to $26.97 as Zuckerberg showed off Facebook Home, a new home screen for Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android-basedsmartphoness that includes a collection of apps, and features such as Cover Feed, which will stream updates and photos as part of the home screen.

Zuckerberg said the purpose of Facebook Home is to give Android users a "more social, connected device."

The HTC First will be the first phone to come with the new Facebook apps and technologies, and will be available on April 12 from AT&T Inc. (T) for $99 with a two-year contract. Preorders can be made starting today.

In addition to Facebook, gains also came from Hewlett-Packard Co.(HPQ) Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE), Intel Corp. (INTC) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO).

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) went into positive territory early in an effort to recoup some of Wednesday's double-digit loss, but then pulled back to remain near its break-even line of 3,218. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) eked out small gains.

Decliners included Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), which gave up 9 cents a share to trade at $28.47. Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analyst Kash Rangan cut his rating on Microsoft to neutral from buy, an cut his price target on the stock to $33 a share from $35. Rangan based his downgrade in large part on what he sees as a lack of momentum in Windows 8 operating system sales.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) was off by $2.90 a share, or almost 1%, at $429.07 even though Lazard Capital Markets analyst Edward Parker started coverage of the company with a buy rating and $540-a-share price target.

Parker had a different take on Apple, calling it a "storage company" by "delicately but deliberately incenting customers to purchase NAND flash memory at 80%-90% incremental margins."

Parker went on to say that "Apple is not only levered to data creation, but instrumental in driving data creation in ways its competitors aren't. We believe this framework helps to suggest why Apple's outsize profits are sustainable even as competitors continue to close the gap with respect to device capability and quality."

Netflix Inc. (NFLX) shares fell 2.4%, to $165.51, after giving up almost 4% on Wednesday. The Blu-ray and DVD sets of the company's original series, "House of Cards" are slated to go on sale June 11.

On Wednesday, Time Warner Inc. (TWX)launched Warner Archive Instant, its own rival video-streaming service to compete against Netflix.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-04-13 1424ET