Top Performing Small Cap Stocks: Friday 6/17 (NCT, AXN, BPZ, PRMW, ZRAN)

Small cap investors have been searching far and wide for the hottest
stocks, including the beaten-down real estate market.

On Friday they found a winner in Newcastle Investment, a New York-based
investment company that holds a portfolio of debt secured by commercial
and residential real estate. Primarily it focuses on commercial property,
which makes up $2.7 billion of its $4.2 billion in holdings. Bringing
back its dividend brought back investor interest.

Investors will be waiting to see this week if Federal Reserve
policymakers telegraph their interest rate intentions when they announce
the outcome of a two-day meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

Last Friday, the Russell 2000 index finished 0.03 percent higher, and is
still just above break-even for the year. The Standard & Poor’s Small
Cap 600 rose 0.04 percent, and is up 1.3 percent year-to-date.

Friday’s Top Performing Small Cap Stocks (Data provided by Capital IQ)

Newcastle Investment (NYSE: NCT): The real estate
investment and finance company reinstated its cash dividend and said that
it has nearly doubled its cash investments.

Aoxing Pharmaceutical (Amex: AXN): The Chinese drugmaker
that specializes in narcotics and pain-control medications announced that
it had received a patent in its homeland for an oral derivative of opium.

BPZ Resources (Nasdaq: BPZ): The oil and gas company
which concentrates on exploring Peru and Ecuador released promising
estimates on the production potential for an offshore site. Shares traded
as high as $6.83 in early March.

Primo Water (Nasdaq: PRMW): The distributor of purified
bottled water through retailers, announced pricing for a secondary stock
offering of 6 million shares. The North Carolina company, owned in part
by water softener-maker Culligan, went public last November.

Zoran (Nasdaq: ZRAN): The developer of digital signal
processing technologies used in many electronics agreed to be acquired by
British chipmaker CSR for $484 million, about 30 percent less than the
initial offer in February because of a deteriorating share price.