Wednesday's Small-Cap Winners & Losers
The small-cap sector mostly traded in negative territory along with the rest of the market, but a number of tech names were nonetheless on the rise.
Among these was
Constant Contact
(CTCT)
, which rocketed 85% after its initial public offering of 6.7 million shares at $16 apiece, largely from the company itself.
Underwriters have an option for about 1 million more shares to cover any overallotments. Shares of the Waltham, Mass., purveyor of Internet marketing and survey products were up $13.60 to $29.60.
Elsewhere,
e-Future Information Technology
(EFUT)
, a China-based business-software company, vaulted 53.6% to $29.18 on word that the Beijing Tourism Group has licensed its e-Future ONE Visual Process Management Solution for centralizing purchasing and optimizing business processes. Terms weren't disclosed.
Digital video recorder seller
TiVo
(TIVO) - Get Report
also jumped after American Technology Research stamped the stock with a new buy rating. The analyst called TiVo a speculative pick, citing an estimated 60% chance that the Alviso, Calif., company will get a favorable ruling in its appeal-stage patent-infringement claim against
EchoStar
(DISH) - Get Report
.
TiVo shares got a 6.1% lift to $7.
Out of the tech sector, India's
WNS
(WNS) - Get Report
leaped 25.7% to $22 after the outsourcing-services firm raised its fiscal 2008 revenue guidance. The company now expects between $290 million and $295 million, minus repair payments, vs. the prior forecast of $286 million to $291 million.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial are seeking $293.2 million.
On the other hand,
P.F. Chang's Chinese Bistro
( PFCB) slumped after slashing at least 18 cents off its third-quarter earnings projection to between 5 cents and 7 cents a share.
The Scottsdale, Ariz., restaurant operator also said comparable sales dropped 1.6% at its Bistro chain and 1% at its Pei Wei locations from last year, with total revenue coming in 17.2% higher at $270.8 million. That just misses Wall Street's $272.5 million consensus.
More broadly, the Russell 2000 and the S&P SmallCap 600 were each down by around 0.8%.