The subject has been talked to death over the past week, but that does not mean attention on the biotech sector is waning.
Amid increased talk of a biotech bubble and fears of government-controlled pricing, biotech stocks and exchange traded funds have been under siege in recent. Over the past five trading sessions the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (NasdaqGM: IBB), the largest biotech by assets, has tumbled 9%. So dramatic has the biotech swoon been that the best ETF tracking the group over the past five days has been the PowerShares Dynamic Biotechnology & Genome Portfolio (NYSEArca: PBE), which is off 7.5%. [Biotech not the Only Momentum ETFs Suffering]
If there is a silver lining for biotech bulls, it is that IBB has not yet violated its multi-year uptrend, indicating that all though the ETF is down 12.3% in the past month, its technicals are not as dreadful as some may be thinking.
Alphatrends.net founder Brian Shannon told Yahoo’s Breakout the uptrend is still going.
“We’re down about 13% off the highs we’ve seen this year and coming pretty close to breakeven year-to-day so it’s really not all that bad,” Shannon told Yahoo. “We’re coming down to the 100-day moving average which is rising. That’s been an area where the biotechs have found support and bounced on 4 or 6 occasions in the last 6 months.”
IBB needs to hold support at $230 to maintain its uptrend. The ETF has not traded below that level in over two months.
Shannon’s “upside for the near term is the old highs from $265 to $270. That gives a potential $35 of profits per share, assuming a $235 entry point,” according to Yahoo.
The $5 billion IBB ranked among the 10 best non-leveraged sector ETFs in three consecutive years ending 2013.
iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF
ETF Trends editorial team contributed to this post.