Wednesday's Late Winners & Losers

Among the most impressive postclose gainers Wednesday, amid overall mixed trading, was Hoku Scientific (HOKU Quote).

Shares racked up 14.8% to $7.98 in heavy action after the Hawaii-based maker of clean-energy technologies finally signed a polysilicon supply contract with a subsidiary of solar-power company Solar Fabrik. Hoku will be paid up to some $185 million over seven years beginning in the latter half of 2009, dependent on certain milestones and other conditions, with a $2 million fee on signing and $51 million in prepayments prior to the first shipment. The agreement has been in the works since December, when the companies first inked a memorandum of understanding.

The Andersons (ANDE Quote), of Maumee, Ohio, boosted its 2007 earnings outlook by 45 cents a share to range between $2.80 and $3.05. That would beat Thomson Financial's per-share estimates by at least 18 cents. Shares of the company, which deals in ethanol production, among other things, were leaping $3.82, or 9.5%, to $44.22.

Panacos Pharmaceuticals (PANC Quote) surged 11% to $4.05 on positive preliminary results from a phase IIb study of bevirimat in patients who are failing HIV therapy due to drug resistance. The Watertown, Mass., biotech said this cohort of the study, which tested 250-mg dosing instead of the prior 400 mg, showed about double the bevirimat plasma concentrations and antiviral effect as compared with the prior cohort.