Utah Stock Index held strong during troubled 2009: Huntsman led locals while Evans and Sutherland dropped 83 percent.

Jan. 1--Share prices of Utah's leading public companies held their own during 2009 despite the struggling national and state economies.

The Salt Lake Tribune /Bloomberg Index, which tracks the stock prices of Utah's 26 largest public companies, gained 21 percent for the year. It bested the 19 percent rise in the Dow Jones industrial average but came up just short of the 23 percent increase recorded by the Standard & Poor's 500.

"It was an extraordinary year for the market in general," said Gary Teran, president of First Western Advisors in Salt Lake City. "The volatility that we saw in the stock market was unprecedented."

Amid the tumult that saw a sharp sell-off in the stock market earlier in the year and a subsequent turn around, 17 of the 26 companies that comprise the Tribune /Bloomberg Index saw increases in their share prices.

Unlike the Dow, the Utah index is comprised primarily of small-cap companies. Such corporations have a market capitalization -- a figure calculated by multiplying the number of shares a company has outstanding by its stock price -- of $1 billion or less.

"Small cap companies did really well this past year," Teran said. "They often have lead the market when a recovery begins after a major downturn."

It was one of Utah's larger corporations, though, that enjoyed the biggest increase in its share price.

Shares of Huntsman Corp., the chemicals conglomerate with headquarters in Salt Lake City and The Woodlands, Texas, gained 228 percent in 2009 to close out the year at $11.29.

Huntsman's shares were bolstered when Apollo Management and several banks agreed to pay it more than $1.5 billion to settle lawsuits that arose out of the failed merger with Apollo's Hexion Specialty Chemicals.

"We now have a company that has about 70 percent of its operations overseas, so we were able to take advantage of the growth in Asia," said CEO Peter Huntsman. "We also were able to cut around $150 million in costs" in 2009.

Several other Utah companies also experienced triple-digit gains in their share price.

Shares of Dynatronics, which manufactures equipment used by physical therapists and sports-medicine practitioners, increased 177 percent. Nu Skin Enterprises' shares jump 158 percent. The stock of Security National, an insurance company and cemetery operator, rose 117 percent.

Imergent, which provides products and services to help its customers with their e-commerce needs, saw its stock jump 46 percent.

"It was a tough year for us," said CEO Steven Mihaylo. "We had to downsize the company, but we're still moving forward and soon will be introducing some new products and expanded Web tools."

Shares of Utah Medical Products increased 34 percent. "We held our own in a tough economy and believe investors recognized our solid, stable performance," Utah Medical spokesman Paul Richins said. "Also, shares were added to the Russell 3000 Index, which brought us in some additional institutional investors."

There were, however, some Utah companies whose share prices were hit hard.

The turmoil in the nation's financial industry contributed to the share price of Zions Bancorp declining 48 percent this year. The stock of Raser Technologies, which is developing geothermal power plants, fell 67 percent. And Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. saw its stock decline 83 percent. E&S was the Utah index's worst-performing member.

steve@sltrib.com

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