Sears Holders Shrug Off Latest Bad News From Kmart

Sears Holdings Corp SHLD shares on Monday appeared to weather reports that its Kmart shoppers got hit with a hack attack that stole uncounted credit card numbers.

Kmart President Alasdair James said that the scam was uncovered Thursday.

Sears' shares have been hammered recently by bad news, most recently last week when at least one vendor halted shipments to the company ahead of a holiday season inventory build-up because of an inability to obtain insurance policies that guarantee payment.

Although off nearly 14 percent in the past five trading days, Sears was up 1.7 percent Monday at $25.21 per share.

James said that beginning in early September, the payment data systems at Kmart stores were infected with malware that "compromised" debit and credit card numbers.

No debit card PIN numbers, no email addresses and no social security numbers were obtained, but the company suggested that customers monitor their accounts for fraudulent transactions.

"I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our members and customers," James said in a message on the company's Web site which offered customers a free credit monitoring service.

Kmart's sales are expected at about $12 billion this year, versus $18 billion for Sears's flagship store.