The Los Angeles Business Journal’s index of the largest local public companies fell for the week. The weighted LABJ index fell 1 percent to close at 215, with losers outpacing gainers 96 to 58. Seven companies closed the week unchanged.
Santa Monica’s Kite Pharma Inc., a cancer drug developer, was one of the week’s leading gainers. Shares rose 31 percent to close at $79.14 on Friday after the company announced that it had struck a deal with Thousand Oaks biotechnology giant Amgen Inc. to develop and market cancer immunotherapies using Amgen’s cancer targets and Kite’s technology platform.
West L.A. biopharmaceutical firm CytRx Corp. also had a good week. Shares rose 29 percent to close at $28.78 after the company announced positive results from two drug studies: one for the treatment of HIV-related skin cancer and another for the treatment of brain cancer.
Among the stocks trading above a dollar, BreitBurn Energy Partners, a Los Angeles oil and gas drilling partnership, was among the week’s losing stocks. Shares fell 16 percent to close the week at $6.43 after the company announced it was cutting its distributions to shareholders by just over 50 percent.
