NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The stocks of many genomics tools and molecular diagnostics firms lost ground in the final month of 2011 continuing a trend for the back half of the year.
The GenomeWeb Daily News Index, which currently tracks the stocks of 31 companies that make and/or sell genomics tools or molecular diagnostic products, fell around 2 percent for the month of December. The second half of the year was difficult for the stocks tracked by the Index, which provided a positive return only one month, October, out of the final six of 2011.
Rosetta Genomics (-33 percent), Complete Genomics (-21 percent), Accelr8 (-16 percent), and Vermillion (-12 percent) dropped the furthest for the month — and all were among the poorest performing stocks in the Index in November as well.
The top gainers for the month were CombiMatrix, which was up 15 percent, and Illumina, which jumped around 10 percent. Both bounced back from November declines.
Orchid Cellmark was dropped from the GWDN Index following its recent acquisition by Laboratory Corporation of America.
The GWDN Index trailed the broader market and biotech stocks in particular for the month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 1 percent for December, while the Nasdaq was virtually flat month over month, and the Nasdaq Biotech Index gained 2 percent.
Tomorrow, GWDN will take a look at the yearly stock performance of firms in the genomics tools and molecular diagnostics spaces.
