Did some funds benefit more than others in the wild and wacky end of day trading on June 29? The final day of the quarter is thought to be a hectic one by many in the industry as fund firms seek to protect gains earned during the period. Of course, the final day of the second quarter turned out to be especially hectic.

A glitch in the exchanges SelectNet and Small Order Execution System caused it to halt trading. The session was then extended one hour until 5 pm to clear the day's trades. To confuse matters still more 29 securities reported incorrect pricing at the end of the day and were repriced the next trading day.

Despite the trading travails, a number of funds were able to show stark gains on the quarter's final trading day. In many cases the gains registered by the funds amounted to a significant fraction of the quarterly return. Firsthand Technology Investors, for example, shot up 6.9 percent on that Friday and the firm's Communications fund jumped 6.5 percent.

Most of the funds that showed gains specialized in small cap or technology stocks, the very issues most affected by the glitch in the system. The table below shows the funds with the largest reported gains in net asset value on the final trading day of the second quarter and their return on the first day of the third quarter.

In most cases funds gave back most of the gain in the first gain of the new quarter. The good news for those funds is that they have three months to make it up.

Funds with Largest Last Day Gains
FUND	29-Jun	02-Jul
Forum BIA Small Cap Growth	6.9%	-5.4%
Firsthand Technology Innovators	6.9	-2.7
Firsthand Communication	6.5	-2.1
Kopp Emerging Growth	6.3	-3.9
Nicholas-Applegate Mini Cap	6.1	-3.5
AIM Emerging Growth	5.7	-2.5
Berger New Generation	5.6	-2.6
Brazos MicroCap	5.5	-4.0
Marshall Small Cap Growth Inv	5.3	-2.7
Firsthand Technology Value	4.9	-2.4
Berger Mid Cap Growth	4.9	-2.2
JP Morgan H&Q IPO Em C	4.9	-1.7
Phoenix-Engemann Small Mid Gr	4.8	-2.8
ICON Energy	4.7	-3.3
Federated Aggressive Growth	4.7	-2.6
Armada Small Cap Value	4.7	-0.8
PBHG Limited	4.6	-2.8

 

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