Small-Cap Winners & Losers: Finisar

Updated from 2:32 p.m. EDT with new stock prices

Small-cap stocks rose along with major indices on Friday as crude oil prices declined.

Shares of Origin Agritech (SEED Quote) advanced 11.6% to $6.81. The Beijing, China-based company, which develops and distributes hybrid crop seeds, announced three new corn hybrid seeds and one GM cotton seed for distribution in 2009.

United Airlines operator UAL (UAUA Quote), based in Chicago, rose 8.2% to $6.83. UAL announced it would make major changes in order to cut costs in the current, challenging economic environment, including reducing its workforce and charging customers $15 for checking the first bag.

Meanwhile, Silicon Motion (SIMO Quote) climbed 5% to $19.38. The Jhubei City, Taiwan, semiconductor company was selected by Samsung to provide a DVB-H tuner for a new mobile telephone.

On the losing side, Finisar (FNSR Quote) dropped 8% to $1.62. The Sunnyvale, Calif., maker of high-speed data communication systems and components was downgraded at Piper Jaffray to neutral from buy. On Thursday, Finisar announced in-line fourth-quarter results and the spinoff of assets related to its NetWisdom business.

Taking on losses, Benihana (BNHN Quote) was down 10% to $7.08. The Miami-based Japanese-style restaurant chain announced lower-than-expected guidance for 2009. The firm projects 2009 earnings per share in a range of 60 cents to 65 cents, while analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting 82 cents a share.

More broadly, the Russell 2000 rose 1.9% to 733.61, and the S&P SmallCap 600 climbed 1.8% to 387.05.