Interstate Hotels, Neuralstem: Midday Volume Plays

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Several stocks trading near $5 were moving on above-average volume during Friday's session.

Interstate Hotels & Resorts (IHR) surged by 93 cents, or 73.2%, to $2.20 after Hotel Acquisition, a joint venture between private-equity fund Thayer Hotel Investors and Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels, will acquires the company for $2.25 a share in an all cash transaction worth $307 million. Volume topped 4.38 million shares, compared to the three-month average daily volume of 79,000, according to Yahoo! Finance.

Neuralstem (CUR) jumped by 32 cents, or 18.1%, to $2.09 after the company said that a Phase I trial to treat Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) with its spinal cord stem cells has been approved by the Institutional Review Board at Emory University in Atlanta. Volume topped 2.09 million shares, compared to the three-month average daily volume of 246,000.

Airvana (AIRV) added $1.29, or 20.7%, to $7.53 after 72 Mobile Holdings, a company to be owned by S.A.C. Private Capital, GSO Capital Partners, Sankaty Advisors and ZelnickMedia, will acquire the company for $7.65 in cash in a $530 million deal. Volume topped 10.6 million shares, compared to the 50-day average daily volume of 172,000, according to the Nasdaq.

Raptor Pharmaceutical (RPTP) dropped by 60 cents, or 24.5%, to $1.85 after the company said institutional investors to purchase nearly 3.75 million units in a $7.5 million securities offering. Volume topped 304,000 shares, compared to the 50-day average daily volume of 76,000.

LDK Solar (LDK) lost $1.06, or 13.5%, to $6.78 after the company priced an offer of 18.9 million American Depositary shares at $7 a share. The $90 million in net proceeds will pay down short-term debt and to fund a polysilicon production plant and the expansion of the company's solar module business. In addition, LDK Solar disclosed that VMS Investment Group and its affiliates have agreed to subscribe to between $50 million to $80 million of preference shares of a Cayman Islands subsidiary. Volume topped 20.25 million shares, compared to the three-month average daily volume of 4.17 million.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in Boston.

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