A late-week rally on Wall Street, fueled by improving prospects to resolve the European debt crisis, helped the Los Angeles Business Journal’s index of largest local public companies make strong gains for a second straight week.
The weighted LABJ index rose 3.8 percent to close at 112.92 for the week ended Oct. 21. Gainers outpaced decliners 100 to 64, with 11 companies unchanged.
The biggest gainer was THQ Inc., which jumped 23 percent to $2.07. The Agoura Hills video game developer re-launched its main company website as a retail outlet for its games and a social hub for players.
Air Lease Corp rose climbed nearly 17 percent to $22.24. The Century City jet leasing company announced the acquisition of 12 new planes.
PacWest Bancorp rose 12.6 percent to $17.39. The Century City bank holding company said its net income nearly quadrupled in the third quarter as it set aside far less money for bad loans.
East West Bancorp Inc. gained 11.6 percent to $18.02. The Pasadena bank holding company raised its full-year earnings guidance and reported third quarter profit and revenue that was better than Wall Street expected.
Among the largest decliners was Demand Media Inc., which fell 11 percent to $6.14. The Santa Monica online content provider announced that internal technical issues led to a decline in traffic to its leading eHow.com website.