Biggest small-cap gainers and losers in Thursday's afternoon session

Will Atkinson | May 15, 2008 2:53pm EDT | Comment

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Here are Thursday's biggest percentage gainers and losers in midday trading, along with top volume leaders, among companies with a market cap between $50 million and $750 million:

Biggest percentage gainers:

• Asia Time Corp. (AMEX:TYM), up 27.5% to $6.35 after the maker of watch components reported that it swung to a first-quarter profit of $2.4 million, or $0.08 per share, versus a loss of $0.2 million, or $0.01 per share, a year earlier. Quarterly net sales rose 74% to $36.8 million from $21.1 million during the same period of 2007.
• National Coal Corp. (Nasdaq:NCOC), up 22.9% to $7.19 despite no news.
• China Architectural Engineering, Inc. (AMEX:RCH), up 19.5% to $9.87 in unusually heavy volume despite no official news from the design and construction firm. In midday action, 4.7 million shares have been traded compared with an average of 0.4 million shares. Investors posting on Internet message boards speculate that building services will be in high demand after a deadly earthquake damaged China’s southwest region. China said early Thursday morning that the death toll from the quake could top 50,000.

Biggest percentage losers:

• Yucheng Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq:YTEC), down 27.4% to $13.42 after the China-based firm reported first-quarter profits of $1.4 million, or $0.08 per share, which missed Wall Street’s expectation of $0.12 per share. The company earned $0.7 million, or $0.06 per share, during the year-ago period. Revenue jumped to $16 million from $9.3 million a year earlier. Analysts anticipated $12.7 million in revenue.
• Amtech Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:ASYS), down 13.8% to $10.79 after reporting lower second-quarter earnings compared with a year earlier.
• FirstService Corp. (Nasdaq:FSRV), down 13.2% to $19.77 after swinging to an adjusted fourth-quarter loss versus a year-earlier profit.

Volume leaders:

• China Architectural Engineering, Inc. (AMEX:RCH), 6.6 million shares traded versus average of 0.4 million shares.
• UCBH Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:UCBH), 4.5 million shares traded compared with average of 3.4 million shares.
• Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:HOV), 3.7 million shares traded versus average of 4.2 million shares.