Second half starts higher for Wall Street

[Sakon Shima]

Second half starts higher for Wall Street

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange, June 27, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

NEW YORK | Mon Jul 1, 2013 9:38am EDT

(Reuters) - Stocks on Monday bounced back from the previous session's decline to start the second half of 2013 by building on the S&P 500's strongest first half of a year since 1998.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 97.69 points or 0.66 percent, to 15,007.29, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 12.11 points or 0.75 percent, to 1,618.39 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 32.19 points or 0.95 percent, to 3,435.43.

(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by James Dalgleish)