Friday's Small-Cap Winners & Losers

Small-cap stocks performed about as well as the rest of the soaring market did Friday, and among those propping up the lot was EpiCept (EPCT).

Shares of the pharmaceutical company skyrocketed 73% to close at $3.95 on positive results from a brain-tumor treatment called Azixa that Epicept has licensed to Myriad Genetics (MYGN). Myriad shares closed slightly up at $35.83.

Britain-based Cambridge Display Technology (OLED) surged more than 25% to close at $5.95 on word Japan's Toshiba is using CDT's light-emitting-polymer technology in a new television design. Factory Card & Party Outlet(FCPO) of Naperville, Ill., rocketed some 30% to close at $11.45 after posting a fiscal fourth-quarter profit of 7 cents a share, reversing a hefty year-ago loss.

Shares of Superior Offshore (DEEP), meanwhile, leapt 17% following its $15 per-share initial public offering for some 10.2 million shares. The company, which sells subsea construction and diving services to the oil and gas industry, closed at $17.54.

Las Vegas-based Shuffle Master (SHFL) also moved higher on news its blackjack-formatted TableMaster product was approved for sale in Pennsylvania -- making it the first virtual table-game product to receive such approval in that state, as a Deutsche Bank analyst pointed out. Shares traded up 87 cents, or 5%, to close at $17.99.

Decliners were few among small-cap companies today, but among these was specialty minerals firm Amcol International (ACO). The Illinois-based outfit lost 10% to close at $26.39 after its first-quarter earnings of 35 cents a share, while higher than last year, came in 4 cents short of Wall Street expectations, per Thomson Financial.