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Market Wrap
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Business New Haven
4/20/1998
By: Russell Stone
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News that Citicorp and the Travelers Group (NYSE: TRV) had agreed to a merger pushed the Travelers' stock price up more than ten points. Share prices peaked at 73 1/2 before falling back to close at 67 5/16 on valuation concerns and fears that Congress would fail to provide the necessary legislation to allow the merger of banking and insurance concerns.
In rampant speculation about mergers in financial services, fueled by the further news that NationsBank would merge with BankAmerica, other insurance giants received slight bumps up in price. Aetna (NYSE: AET), closing at 87, and Hartford Financial (NYSE: HIG), closing at 110 1/16, both rose marginally before receding.
New Haven's small pharmaceutical companies were generally positive, rebounding from near-term lows. While Vion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VION) was essentially flat, closing at 3 15/32, Alexion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALXN) rose strongly in the last two weeks to close at 13 7/8. Novametrix (NASDAQ: NMTX) fell below six in late February, but has recovered to close at 7 3/8 on positive earnings news.
Farrel Corp. (NASDAQ: FARL) suffered from a mixed earnings report. Although net income rose in 1997, the year's final quarter showed a loss on sales that were down from the last quarter of the previous year. On heavy volume, Farrel's share price fell from above six to close at 4 5/8.
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