November 10, 1983

Governor Cuomo promised New Yorkers yesterday that they would get what they voted for in the $1.25 billion bond issue to finance roads and bridges throughout the state for the next five years. ''I think it gives us the unique opportunity not only to rebuild New York but to enhance our own credibility,'' the Governor said at a post-election news conference. ''We have a chance to prove to the people who had doubts we were telling the truth.'' With 99 percent of the results counted, the vote for the bond issue was 1,645,124, or 53 percent, and against it, 1,475,814, or 47 percent.

In theory, it seemed simple enough: The Aetna insurance company wanted to consolidate some of its offices in Hartford and move them to a new site here. But simple it was not. The project has become one of the largest corporate moves of its kind, involving the eventual shifting of more than 4,000 employees, the hiring of 1,000 more and the building of a 1.4 million-square-foot complex. At least temporarily, the move, which began last month and will take a year to complete, will cut Aetna's work force in the immediate Hartford area by more than a quarter.

The Consumers Power Company, which has been building a two-unit nuclear power plant in Midland, Mich., said yesterday that the completion of one unit may be delayed for more than a year and the construction schedule for a second would be revised. Part of the delay was attributed to the cancellation by the Dow Chemical Company last July of plans to buy steam produced at one of the units. The utility, which supplies gas and electricity in much of Michigan outside of Detroit, said Unit No. 2, to have been completed by February 1985, might now be delayed until mid- 1986. It said that completion of Unit No. 1, scheduled for August 1985, was now ''under review.''

After almost daily declines over the past month, stock prices rose sharply yesterday, reacting in part to a drop in interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average, which was in the plus column throughout the session, rose 17.58 points, to 1,232.52, its biggest daily since Oct. 6, when it soared 18.60 points. Since closing at a record 1,284.65 on Oct. 10, the average had tumbled more than 60 points. The advance was broadly based, with stocks gaining in price on the New York Stock Exchange outscoring losers by a 5-to-3 ratio. Turnover climbed to 83.1 million shares, from 64.9 million on Tuesday, when volume was slowed because of Election Day.

Backers of Yasir Arafat repelled a three-pronged attack by Syrian- backed Palestinians on the loyalists' last stronghold in Lebanon. Lebanese leaders and Arab diplomats pressed efforts to arrange a cease-fire, apparently to get Mr. Arafat and his backers away from the densely-populated city of Tripoli, but there was no sign that any agreement had been reached. (Page A1, Column 6.) Washington urged Mideast nations to halt the fighting between rival Palestininan factions around Tripoli. The State Department said the United States was contributing $1 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross for relief work in the port city. (A1:5.)