>And also BTW, in this market everybody gets a chance to screw up -- can use say volatile?
Can you say volatile?
>And also BTW, in this market everybody gets a chance to screw up -- can use say volatile?
Can you say IPO? While Amzn moves up only 4 points.
>NEW YORK, April 7 (Reuters) - A surging Nasdaq buoyed the shares of several initial public offerings on Friday as one of the most volatile weeks in Wall Street history came to an end.
"The better tone of the market ... strongly suggests the IPO market will do better," said Joseph Missette, syndicate managing director at CIBC World Markets. "One follows the other."
The Nasdaq composite index, which at one point on Tuesday dropped by as many as 574 points, or 13 percent, closed up 178.89 on Friday at 4446.45, a gain of over 4 percent.
"It was a week that shook some folks to the bone, but (the IPO market) showed its resiliency," said Kenan Pollack, money editor at Hoover's Online, who thought the performance of new issues on Friday was encouraging.
"Today's a pretty good sign for the overall (IPO) market."
Friday's busy market was paced by the performances of Numerical Technologies Inc. <NMTC.O> and Saba Software Inc. <SABA.O>, as shares of both more than doubled in value.
Three other deals, Opus360 Corp. <OPUS.O>, LivePerson Inc. <LPSN.O> and Tanox Inc. <TNOX.O>, posted solid gains during their debuts, while the shares of Lexicon Genetics Inc. <LEXG.O> fell below their offering price, making it a "broken IPO.
Shares of GoAmerica Inc. <GOAM.O>, Friday's other new issue, closed the day flat from the $16 IPO price.
While Friday's top two IPO gainers both doubled in value, five of the day's deals traded much closer to their offering prices. Despite the relatively mild performances of most of the day's deals, some analysts see continuing volatility as the new issue sector moves forward.
"When you talk about these crazy first day pops ... I think its day traders (that) are driving a lot of this stuff," said Missette. "If they stay involved, you're going to see a lot of volatility."
Others see the IPO market becoming more prudent as the number of deals continues to increase, causing the gains in many IPOs to be tempered.
"Investors are becoming much more selective and that's definitely in response to the fear out there that the IPO market is indeed going to stumble from the sheer quantity of the deals," said David Menlow, president of IPOfinancial.com in Millburn, N.J.
Friday's market certainly was not lacking in quantity, as the seven offerings raised a total of over $840 million.
San Jose, Calif.-based Numerical was the top gainer of the group, as its shares closed up 21-9/16 to 35-9/16 on the Nasdaq, a gain of 154 percent.
Numerical, which provides products that help design and manufacture faster and smaller semiconductor devices, priced 5.534 million shares at $14 each through lead underwriter Credit Suisse First Boston.
"They're a pure technology play," said Corey Ostman, chief technology officer at alert-ipo.com. "These guys have great partners as well as customers."
With about 29 million shares outstanding after the IPO, Numerical has a market capitalization of about $1.03 billion.
Shares of Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Saba traded 18 higher on the Nasdaq to close at 33, a gain of 120 percent.
The company, which provides software and services to help business create and deploy global networks via the Internet, priced 4 million shares at $15 each, above range, through lead underwriter Goldman Sachs.
Saba has a market capitalization of about $1.41 billion, based on its approximate 42.9 million shares outstanding.
LivePerson shares closed up 1-1/2 to 9-1/2 on the Nasdaq. The company provides technology that allows real-time sales and customer service for Internet operations.
The New York-based company priced its 4 million share IPO at $8 per share through lead underwriter Chase H&Q. On Thursday, the company lowered its expected pricing range to $10 per share from $13 to $15 per share.
Tanox, based in Houston, priced 7.5 million shares at $28.50 through lead underwriter CIBC World Markets. The biotechnology research and development firm's shares closed at 28-1/2 in Nasdaq trading.
Shares of Lexicon, which develops a technology used to discover the functions of genes for drug development, were off 3-1/4 from their $22 IPO price, closing at 18-3/4 on the Nasdaq.
Lexicon priced 10 million shares at the bottom of their projected price band through joint underwriters J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse First Boston.
Hackensack, N.J.-based GoAmerica, shares of which closed flat at 16 in Nasdaq trading, priced its 10 million share IPO through lead underwriter Bear Sterns.
18:34 04-07-00 |
