Wednesday's Small-Cap Winners & Losers

Updated from 2:01 p.m. EDT with new stock prices

Small-cap stocks opened higher along with the broader market on earnings wins from several big names. The Russell 2000 climbed 3% to 712.96, and the S&P SmallCap 600 added 2.9% to 376.35.

Badger Meter (BMI Quote), a Milwaukee company that manufactures and markets products using flow measurement and control technologies, rose 19.1% to $49.64 on first-quarter earnings. Badger posted earnings of $6 million, or 41 cents a share, vs. $2.6 million, or 18 cents a share, a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting 33 cents a share.

After falling for most of last week, shares of Agria (GRO Quote) bounced back, gaining 19.3% to $4.39. The Beijing vendor of agricultural products including sheep, corn seeds and seedlings announced its independent auditors have begun auditing financial statements from 2007. Earlier this week, the company had announced it was named as a defendant in a class action lawsuit related to its initial public offering. ...