Shares of Celera Genomics Group posted strong gains yesterday amid a broad recovery in the biotechnology sector and speculation that the Rockville-based company soon will announce it has created the first complete description of human DNA.
The stock rose as much as 22 percent before settling for an 8.5 percent advance in regular trading yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.
As the stock rose, Celera President J. Craig Venter and a one-time colleague turned recent rival, Dr. Francis S. Collins - who now heads a publicly funded project that also is racing to map the human genome - surprised onlookers by smiling for cameras and joking with one another during an appearance at the National Institutes of Health.
The two coyly demurred when asked if they were negotiating a last-minute agreement to finish the job together. But they are quietly talking about sharing data and credit for the work, a source close to the negotiations confirmed.
The appearance yesterday was part of a meeting with other researchers on the genetics of cancer. Venter is scheduled to speak again today before a joint congressional committee on the economy, continuing a highly public week that has featured him on the cover of Business Week and in a profile in New Yorker magazine.
Simultaneously, shares of Celera have risen nearly 54 percent since Friday's close, finishing at $105.25 yesterday and capping a rally in which they have risen some 202 percent since Dec. 14.
Celera has said repeatedly that it expects to complete assembly of the genome this month. Jim McCamant, editor of Berkeley-based Medical Technology Stock Letter, said there was no doubt that speculation about an imminent announcement was driving Celera's stock and taking the rest of the biotechnology sector with it.
But some analysts disagreed, saying an overall resurgence in biotechnology stocks in general is pulling Celera along.
SG Cowen analyst Eric Schmidt said many investors are flocking back to biotech following indications that the economy is making a soft landing in the wake of intervention by the Federal Reserve. Some of those investors, who took refuge in stocks such as pharmaceuticals, perceived as less likely to be hardest hit in a recession, are pouring back into biotech stocks.
The Nasdaq biotechnology index has rebounded, rising 3 percent to 1,086.12 yesterday. The index has risen nearly 6 percent since Friday's close and is up 62.5 percent since its six-month low of 668.29 on Dec. 9.
