Thursday's Small-Cap Winners & Losers

Hoku Scientific (HOKU), a maker of membranes used in fuel cells, surged nearly 40% after the company said the Navy has officially accepted the first two of 10 planned fuel-cell power plants incorporating its technology.

The fuel cells will be demonstrated at Pearl Harbor Naval Station in Hawaii. The announcement sent Hoku's shares higher by $1.44 to $5.19 on much heavier-than-normal volume.

VocalTec Communications (VOCL) lost more than 11% after the company, a provider of services for communications firms, closed a private placement of 935,000 shares at $5.50 each.

Additionally, VocalTec issued the investors in the deal warrants to purchase up to 374,000 shares at an exercise price of $7.90. Shares of VocalTec were losing 72 cents to $5.50.

Pixelplus (PXPL), a chip company based in Korea, dropped more than 8% after saying it will postpone its first-quarter earnings announcement and conference call that had been scheduled for Friday.

The company said it has to delay its report until its accountants complete their audit of its financial statements for fiscal 2005. Pixelplus now expects to release its results for the first quarter before the end of June. Shares were down 30 cents at $3.22.

Shares of @Road (ARDI) got a lift after they were upgraded by Wedbush Morgan. The firm lifted its rating on the stock to strong buy from buy, boosting software provider @Road by 51 cents, or 10.5%, to $5.36.

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