Tuesday's ETF Winners & Losers

Funds tracking housing and health care are up, energy is down.

Author:: Robert Holmes
Publish date:: Apr 17, 2007 1:32 PM EDT

Housing-related exchange-traded funds were among the top performers of Tuesday's session, following positive news in a government report.

The U.S. Census Bureau said housing starts unexpectedly rose 0.8% in March to 1.518 million annualized units. Building permits last month also rose 0.8%, to 1.544 million. On average, economists expected March starts to total 1.50 million, and for permits to dip to a 1.51 million annual pace.

The

iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction

(ITB) - Get Report

ETF was higher by 53 cents, or 1.5%, at $35.60. The

SPDR Homebuilders

(XHB) - Get Report

ETF was up 39 cents, or 1.2%, to $33.73.

Also gaining ground was the

HealthShares Emerging Cancer

(HHJ)

ETF, aided by gains of 3.1% or more in

Dendreon

(DNDN)

Biomira

(BIOM)

, and

Cell Genesys

(CEGE)

. The ETF was recently adding 29 cents, or 1.1%, to $27.18.

Among losers, the

B2B Internet HOLDRs

(BHH)

ETF sank nearly 1%, as holding

CheckFree

(CKFR)

slumped 1.8%. The ETF was off 2 cents, or 0.9%, to $2.13.

Bundled securities tracking the energy sector were also among the losers of the day, despite a gain in oil prices. The front-month May crude contract was recently adding 41 cents to $64.02 a barrel.

The

iShares Dow Jones U.S. Oil Equipment Index

(IEZ) - Get Report

ETF was off 1.2% to $54.44. The

PowerShares DB Oil

(DBO) - Get Report

ETF was losing 1.1% to $26.15. The

Oil Services HOLDRs

(OIH) - Get Report

ETF eased 0.8% to $154.27. The

iPath Goldman Sachs Crude Oil Index

(OIL) - Get Report