CORPORATE STOCKS RISE AS CEOS FALL\Market reflects investor pleasure when unloved executives vacate\posts.

Byline: Virginia Munger Kahn The New York Times

One thing about the stock market: It's not subtle. When Daniel E. Gill, chairman of Bausch & Lomb, announced his resignation Dec. 13, investors promptly made their pleasure clear.

In fact, they judged the company to be worth $150 million more with Gill gone.

It did not seem to matter that he had built Bausch & Lomb into a big supplier of contact lenses and sunglasses; the investors apparently believed that he had not done anything for them lately, and they also were dismayed over his recent acquisitions and the company's shrinking market share.

Corporate America is full of unloved leaders: chief executives whose absence makes shareholders' hearts grow fonder.

Indeed, according to a 1993 study by Joseph A. Grundfest, a former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, management changes at just four big corporations between June 1991 and April 1992 added $2.7 billion to shareholder value on the day the changes were announced.

When Allied Signal replaced Edward L. Hennessy Jr. with Lawrence A. Bossidy on June 27, 1991, for instance, investors added $500 million to the company's value.

For Allied Signal and the other three companies - General Motors, Tenneco and Goodyear - these one-day bumps added 6 percent to 15 percent to the price of their shares.

Chief executives have more sway over a company's fortunes than anyone else, and a leadership change can augur well for the enterprise in other ways; if the chief is jettisoned by the board, for example, it may mean the directors are finally addressing longstanding problems.

It is no surprise that investors try to anticipate such market-moving changes. Robert Stovall, president of Stovall/21st Advisors, keeps what he calls his "necrology list" - stocks that are likely to rise when current management is dead or otherwise gone.

And, sooner or later, the departures will happen, Stovall has judged, because at these companies the executives are either old or their perceived poor performance has put them under pressure to leave.

Stovall has kept such a list of companies - and invested his clients' money in them - for years. One current listing is Apple Computer, which is on top of many analysts' most-dismayed-with-management lists these days.

With Michael H. Spindler at the helm since June 1993, and in the midst of a great bull market in technology, Apple's stock has declined from more than $50 in mid-1995 to $34.25 at Friday's close.

While Apple's boss did cut costs early in his tenure, critics accuse him of crucial missteps, from resisting lucrative takeover bids to failing to come up with exciting new products to not shipping goods on time.

"If he doesn't lose his job, there's no justice," said Gary Kaminsky, portfolio manager at Cowen & Co. in New York.

For many, the most important attraction of Spindler's absence would be the increased likelihood that Apple would be involved in a merger - and the higher stock price that often comes with it.

"If he were gone, I bet six months later, they would be bought by IBM or Toshiba," said Martin Whitman, a "vulture" investor who has a stake in Apple.

And at least one activist investor, who himself owns no Apple stock, thinks Spindler "has all the earmarks of a guy on the way out." This investor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that in the last few months, some of Spindler's chief lieutenants have left, including Joseph A. Graziano, the chief financial officer, and Daniel L. Eilers, the head of worldwide marketing.

There are plenty of other candidates for a pop in value if management is jettisoned.

The Council of Institutional Investors, an association of pension funds and other large investors, keeps a list of companies that have seriously underperformed both the S&P 500 and their own industry groups in the last five years.

The pressure that council members bring on these laggards often results in management changes, said Alyssa Machold, deputy director of the council.

Two council targets that are likely to feel the heat this year Salomon Inc. and Tenneco. For Salomon, "patience is wearing thin in the investment community," said Nell Minow, principal at Lens Inc., a money manager in Washington, which pressures troubled companies to make changes.

While Salomon's stock was $53 a share in early 1994, internal dissension and poor performance brought it to $35.50 at Friday's close. In 1994, Salomon declared a $399 million loss, and this year's earnings at an estimated $315 million are expected to be the lowest since 1990.

"They obviously have to do something, that's clear," said Richard Koppes, general counsel of Calpers, the California public employees' pension fund. "The pressure is on them." But if someone goes it is unclear who it will be. A possibility is Deryck C. Maughan, head of the brokerage unit.

At Tenneco - one of the companies studied by Grundfest - shareholders bid up the company's value by $659.3 million when Michael H. Walsh became chief executive in 1991. But Walsh resigned in February 1994, and the new chief, Dana G. Mead, has not had the same respect.

Reebok is another success story gone sour, say some observers, who blame Paul Fireman, chief executive since he founded the company in 1979. Since 1991 Reebok shares have been running in place, a victim of the company's inability to turn out sneakers as popular as Nike's.

In Minow's view, Fireman is typical of visionary executives who have built a great business but cannot run a going concern.

But just because an executive is not liked does not mean he will soon leave. And some may be particularly hard to unseat. Fireman, for instance, owns a large chunk of stock, and despite intense pressure for him to resign, he refuses to do so.

"It's unlikely he'll be stepping down any time soon," said Elizabeth Vandeventer of S&P. "This is his baby."

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Photo/Chart (1) Michael H. Spindler, chief executive of Apple Computer. Critics say he has resisted a merger. Anne Dowie/New York Times Photo (2) Paul Fireman of Reebok. The company's sneakers have not been as popular as Nike's. Yunghi Kim/The Boston Globe (3) Dana G. Mead of Tenneco. His detractors say he has filed to focus the conglomerate. F. Carter Smith/New York Times Photo