Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 11, 1993                   TAG: 9308110073
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

IN BUSINESS

Mutual Fund Forecaster, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., financial industry news service, on Tuesday reported the best-performing equity mutual funds for the 13- and 52-week periods ended Aug. 6:

Excel Midas Gold Shares, based in California, rose 36 percent in 13 weeks and 64 percent in the 52-week period; Lexington Strategic Investments of New Jersey, up 27 percent and 73 percent respectively; United Services World Gold of Texas, up 23 percent and 53 percent; Blanchard Precious Metals of New York, up 22 percent and 43 percent, and Van Eck-Gold Resources of New York, up 20 percent and 47 percent.

For details, call the Mutual Fund Forecaster at (800) 442-9000. - Staff report

\ Wytheville denies zoning for factory

WYTHEVILLE - Town Council has denied a zoning exemption that could have led to 200 new jobs.

The Joint Industrial Development Authority sought the exemption for a sock and stocking manufacturer to occupy the former Greenlawn Classics building off U.S. 11 near a residential subdivision in west Wytheville.

The building, constructed in 1974 with an addition two years later, employed a maximum of 300 people before it closed at the end of 1987. The industrial authority has tried to market it.

Six residents of the Golf Club Lane area opposed the exemption at a public hearing Monday night. "The factory should never have been put there in the first place," one said. The town Planning Commission then recommended denial of the request and council accepted the recommendation. - Southwest bureau