Bio-warfare stocks up sharply

Companies involved in biological and chemical warfare defense research traded up on Tuesday, as investors sought out companies that might benefit from the war on terrorism, amid heightened media attention on a federal investigation of anthrax in Florida. At least five companies working on such technologies gained more than 20% on Tuesday.

Leading the charge was Cepheid (CPHD), which surged $3.79 (86%) to $8.19 on 31.5 million shares. CPHD is developing miniature microfluidic diagnostics to detect biological warfare pathogens. Orchid (ORCH) popped $1.25 (54%) to $3.55 on 1.5 million shares. The company's microfluidic-enabled DNA synthesis technology has potential use as a component of possible biological agent detection devices. Commonwealth Biotech (CBTE), which provides DNA sequence analysis to detect pathogenic and toxic biological warfare agents, added $1.48 (26%) to $7.08. Aclara (ACLA), which is developing biofluidic integrated processors (BIOFLIPS) to detect biological agents and genetically engineered variants, advanced $1.32 (24%) to $6.90 on 1.5 million shares. And Siga (SIGA), which is using government grants to develop anti-virals to prevent and treat poxvirus biological warfare agents, moved up $0.70 (21%) to $4. ...