A small-capitalization healthcare sector ETF climbed Friday after Nektar Therapeutics (NasdaqGS: NKTR) and ICU Medical (NasdaqGS: ICUI) posted their fourth quarter results.
The PowerShares S&P SmallCap Health Care Portfolio (NasdaqGS: PSCH) focuses more on smaller companies, was among the best performing non-leveraged, U.S.-listed ETFs on Friday, jumping 4.2%.
Lifting the small-cap healthcare ETF, Nektar Therapeutic shares surged 21.8% after revealing better-than-expected revenue of $95.5 million, compared to Wall Street expectations of $31.5 million and Q4 2016 revenue of $37.5 million..
“This past year was truly transformational for Nektar as we achieved a number of successes with Nektar medicines across our three key therapeutic areas of immuno-oncology, immunology and pain,” Howard W. Robin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nektar, said in a note.
Investors also remain hopeful of the company’s future as Nektar recently signed a lucrative partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) that came with an upfront down-payment of $1.85 billion, along with potential blockbuster drugs in its pipeline.
PSCH’s largest single component holding is NKTR at 12.0% of the fund ‘s portfolio.