Russell Indexing Reshuffle Moves Healthcare Stocks: CXM, CTIC, HEB, CPD

When Russell Investments reconstitutes its comprehensive set of U.S. and global equity indexes, especially it's broad-market Russell 3000 Index, stocks move. That is certainly the story for biomedical stocks as regular hours trading came to a close on Friday. Today, the annual reconstitution of Russell's U.S. indexes took place and it captured the 4,000 largest U.S. stocks as of the end of May, ranking them by total market capitalization.

Membership in the Russell 3000, which remains in place for one year, also means automatic inclusion in the small-cap Russell 2000 Index as well as the appropriate growth and value style indexes.

There were some big gains for newly included companies from the healthcare sector, including Cardium Therapeutics Inc. (CXM) 2.90 +1.04 (55.91%).

Because Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for both passive and active investment strategies, many investors rush in to take shares of the newly listed companies. Interestingly, final membership lists posted for the Russell Global, Russell 3000, Russell 1000®, Russell 2000®, Russell Midcap® and Russell Microcap indexes won't become official until June 29, but that didn't keep the excitement from continuing after hours for some investors with big block buys and volume on Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTIC) 1.85 +0.28 (17.83%) Hemispherx BioPharma, Inc. (HEB) 2.85 +0.45 (18.75%) and Dendreon Corporation (DNDN) 23.99 -0.97 (-3.89%).

There were rumors of an incredible 7,599,700 share trade in Hemispherx stock. A detailed review of the After Hours trading log at Nasdaq did not confirm those reports but did reveal unusually large bock trades nonetheless. This follows a day of renewed activity on the stock as investors began to feel more confident that the company would receive final word from the FDA on their application for Ampligen as a treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. That decision is now 18 days late.

One stock that you may not have expected to see near the top of the gainers list is Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd. (CPD) - especially after the FDA seized more than 30 Caraco-made generic drugs following a discovery of manufacturing defects at company plants. The company said the raided inventory was worth $15 million to $20 million, but it also noted it has a cash position of about $64 million, and that it will generate sufficient profit to cover the generic-drug maker's continuing operating expenses.

"We expect that our financial position will allow the company the time to resolve its pending FDA issues," A Caraco spokesman noted. Investors welcomed the news, sending shares up on Friday. The drug seizure followed warning letters and recalls over the past several months. The company had told BioMedReports that they expected the FDA inspection in May would be the final step in resolving the warning letter issues.

Here are the rest of Friday, June 26th's top movers:

Gainers (% price change)	Last Trade	Change	Mkt Cap
Cardium Therapeutics Inc.	CXM	2.90	+1.04 (55.91%)	136.10M
Caraco Pharmaceutical	CPD	3.39	+1.00 (41.84%)	126.98M
Rockwell Medical Tech	RMTI	8.79	+1.99 (29.26%)	124.23M
Protalix BioTherapeutics	PLX	5.24	+1.09 (26.27%)	398.36M
K-V Pharmaceutical Co.	KV.A	3.59	+0.69 (23.79%)	179.31M
Losers (% price change)
Immucor, Inc.	BLUD	13.80	-2.29 (-14.23%)	972.04M
Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc	JAZZ	3.90	-0.58 (-12.95%)	112.81M
Tiens Biotech Group (USA	TBV	2.03	-0.21 (-9.38%)	144.81M
Myriad Genetics, Inc.	MYGN	34.60	-2.90 (-7.73%)	3.30B
Sanofi-Aventis SA	SNY	28.01	-2.20 (-7.28%)	76.53B
Most Actives (dollar volume)
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	56.60	+0.33 (0.59%)	155.97B
Amgen, Inc.	AMGN	52.80	+0.88 (1.69%)	53.45B
Pfizer Inc.	PFE	15.19	-0.14 (-0.91%)	102.50B
Merck & Co., Inc.	MRK	27.00	+0.43 (1.62%)	56.93B
Eli Lilly & Co.	LLY	35.28	-0.05 (-0.14%)	40.54B

Disclosure: No positions