BCW Index Takes its First Dip, Falls 8 Percent
After three weeks of gains, the BioCommerce Week Index of Diversified Molecular Biology Tool Companies finished down this week, finishing at $31.25 Tuesday, down 3 percent from last week’s $32.19 close.
The fall is in step with broader market measures. The Dow, the S&P 500, and Nasdaq — as well as the Nasdaq biotech — all finished down, between 1 and 2 percent lower than last week.
Of the 15 companies in the BCW Index, 12 saw their share prices fall during the week. Agilent led this group, falling to $21.29 from $23.32, an 8 percent drop, while shares of Molecular Devices, Waters, PerkinElmer, and Invitrogen fell more than 5 percent during a week when many of the BCW Index company executives were in New York to present at the annual UBS Global Life Sciences Conference.
Beckman Coulter and Applied Biosystems recorded fractions-of-a-percentage gains while Harvard Bio ended even at $4.45.
Agilent’sdrop comes after making gains of 14 percent over the previous weeks since the Index was first published on Sept. 8.
PerkinElmer, even with a 5.38-percent dip this week, still is above its index-opening price of $18.71, while Applied Bio dips below its index opening price of $18.81.
After gaining nearly 20 percent from the start of the index, Invitrogen stands at $55.38, after starting at $48.87.
The index is a weekly compilation of stock prices of a select group of public molecular biology tools companies with multiple platform technologies, and business units with executives dedicated to integrated biology efforts, or with investments in this emerging field.
