Aside from signs of economic recovery, investors looked last year for earnings gains and big themes and seemed to find both in C-Cor.net Corp., crowning it king among stocks of local interest for 2003.

The State College-based broadband equipment supplier saw its shares soar 235 percent, partially on improving profits as its fiscal year began in mid-2003 and because technology stocks began rebounding from a multiyear slump.

C-Cor bested performances of both the Standard & Poor's 500, a broad measure of market performance that rose 26.4 percent in 2003, and the Standard & Poor's Communications Equipment index, which gained 65 percent.

The second best market performer among the region's top 50 companies, iGate Capital Corp., also benefited from the technology turnaround, but perhaps rode to its 200 percent gain on an even more powerful theme: outsourcing.

The Oakdale concern, through its offshore subsidiary, iGate Global Solutions, helps companies perform back-office business processing activities and information technology needs, such as data management, with workers in India.

Along with C-Cor and iGate, other companies rounding out the best five market performances locally -- U.S. Steel Corp., Dick's Sporting Goods and Mine Safety Appliances -- made for an eclectic list.

U.S. Steel placed third with a 167 percent gain that drove its stock to its highest level in more than five years.

The strong finish came amid an overall rebound in steel stocks that ran in the face of a White House decision to remove import tariffs the industry long called essential to its recovery.

Despite repeal of the tariffs, other factors that drove investor enthusiasm were: A spate of cost cutting following mergers; higher steel prices, driven in part by growing consumption in China; and a weaker dollar, which made imports more expensive.

Dick's Sporting Goods, whose stock went public in late 2002, claimed the No. 4 spot with a 153 percent gain. The increase reflected an improving financial performance driven by new store openings, tight inventory controls and a burst of cold weather that helped spur sales of winter sports gear the final quarter of 2003.

Shareholders of Mine Safety Appliances, whose market performance placed fifth locally, saw not only a 147 percent gain on their investments last year, but also a 3-for-1 stock split, a special one-time dividend and an 18 percent increase in their regular quarterly dividends.

Investors have been driving Mine Safety's stock up ever since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which boosted demand for helmets, gas masks and breathing equipment the O'Hara-based company makes for the military, homeland security and firefighting markets.

Despite the S&P 500's 26.4 percent gain, not all of the region's top companies matched the broad index. Sixteen finished with gains of less than 26 percent and another two -- Michael Baker Corp. and Seec Inc. -- lost value.

For Moon-based Michael Baker, an engineering and energy services firm, the decline came on tumbling earnings.

Seec, a struggling, Findlay-based software maker that hasn't seen a profit since 1999, saw its stock delisted from the Nasdaq National Market.