MannKind, Qualstar Among Week’s Big Movers

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The Los Angeles Business Journal’s index of the largest local public companies rose slightly for the week. The weighted LABJ index rose less than 1 percent to close at 234, with gainers outpacing losers 88 to 61. Seven companies closed the week unchanged.

Among stocks trading above a dollar, diabetes drug developer MannKind Corp. was one of the week’s leading gainers. Shares rose 13 percent to close at $4.52 on Friday, a week after an analyst released a report suggesting doctors might prescribe the company’s inhalable insulin treatment Afrezza at rates higher than initially expected.

Los Angeles oil company BreitBurn Energy Partners was among the week’s losing stocks. Shares fell five percent to close the week at $5.77, continuing a recent slide that started at the beginning of the month. Shares are down 11 percent since May 1.

The biggest loser by far for the week was West Hollywood’s MexBox Inc., a maker of marijuana dispensing machines. The company’s stock, which has seen its stock lose 96 percent of its value over the past year, fell another 19 percent to 51 cents after reporting a big loss and little revenue for the first quarter.

In a May 18 earnings report, the company, which was briefly valued at more than $1 billion, showed quarterly revenue of just $41,747 and a net loss of $4.4 million (-14 cents a share). The company had reported a loss of $1.7 million (-5 cents) in the same quarter a year earlier.