Tuesday's Small-Cap Winners & Losers

Small-cap stocks were ensnared in the red together with the major indices Tuesday despite leaping names like Xenonics (XNN Quote).

The California-based company's stock soared 23.7% on word it has shipped NightHunter3, its new weapons-mounted illumination system, to the U.S. Army for evaluation. Shares traded up to $2.19 despite a widened fiscal third-quarter loss.

Icagen (ICGN Quote), a biopharma based in Durham, N.C., also jumped after announcing it will join forces with Pfizer (PFE Quote) in order to develop new pain-treatment compounds. Pfizer will pay Icagen up to $38 million over the first two years of the collaboration, including an initial fee of $12 million and a sizable equity investment. Icagen shares rocketed this morning before slackening to a respectable gain of 6.8% at $2.05. Pfizer was recently down 1.5%.

Business-services firm G&K Services (GKSR Quote) saw per-share income climb 11.8% year over year to 57 cents in the fiscal fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Gentiva Health Services (GTIV Quote) rose after Deutsche Bank upped the Melville, N.Y., home-health-care company to buy from hold, citing better-than-expected margin leverage.

Shares of Minnesota-based G&K traded up $2.25, or 6.2%, to $38.72. Gentiva tacked on 2.8% to $22.08.

On the downside, however, were a number of small-cap names mired in poor earnings and guidance. American Railcar Industries (ARII Quote) slid 15.3% after second-quarter earnings only ticked up by a penny from last year to 52 cents a share, or $11 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were seeking 12 cents more per share. The St. Charles, Mo., company was off $5.30 to $29.39.