Friday's Small-Cap Winners & Losers

Small-cap stocks were rising in concert with the rest of the market Friday, even amid disappointing news out of the retail sector.

SkillSoft (SKIL Quote) was among the winners, climbing 13.5% to $8.89 after more than doubling its fiscal second-quarter income to 11 cents a share, or $12.4 million, vs. the same period a year ago. The Nashua, N.H., educational-software company also reported 28.4% higher revenue at $71.5 million to top the $68.3 million mean estimate from Thomson Financial.

Esterline Technologies (ESL Quote), which makes products and systems for the aerospace and defense markets, also beat on sales for the fiscal third quarter and catapulted its bottom line to $38.8 million, or $1.49 a share. Last year the Bellevue, Wash., company earned $11.2 million, or 43 cents a share. Its stock traded up $1.14, or 2.3%, to $50.99.

That helped to support the Russell 2000, which gained 1.2% at around 793. The S&P SmallCap 600 performed similarly.

Elsewhere, California's Catalyst Semiconductor (CATS Quote) jumped 9% to $5.35 on an upgrade to buy at CE Unterberg Towbin. BB&T Capital Markets raised crafts retailer Jo-Ann Stores (JAS Quote) to hold from underweight a day after its shares tumbled on a wider-than-expected second-quarter loss. Shares of the Hudson, Ohio, outfit rose 4.9% to $22.73 in partial recovery.