Not to be outdone by the previous week’s performance, the medtech industry’s stocks hit yet another peak over the holidays this week.
Previous highs have largely been a result of the FDA granting Moderna emergency use authorization for its vaccine candidate and its subsequent rollout to the U.S., joining the one made by Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX), which began to be administered earlier this month.
Thanks in large part to these developments, MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — finished last week at 103.63 (Dec. 25), marking its highest-ever total and a 1% uptick from the 102.6 points registered at the end of the week prior (Dec. 18).
A slight downturn came after the index hit a new high on Dec. 4 (100.75), beating the mark of 100.65 set on Nov. 9 and setting a new all-time high since the index started being recorded on Jan. 1, 2001. However, stocks have continued to rise ever since.
On Dec. 18, the markets hit their then-highest mark so far at 103.11 points, only to be bettered last week as the industry’s tocks continue to rise amid investor expectations of a better 2021.
The index has now climbed more than 11 points ahead of the pre-pandemic high of 92.32, which the market reached on Feb. 19. To date, medtech stocks have increased by 12.3%.
Medtech’s stock performance outperformed the overall markets, with the S&P 500 Index actually seeing a -0.2% dip, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fared slightly better, climbing by just 0.07%.
Medtech’s lowest point during the COVID-19 pandemic remains at 62.13 on March 23. Since then, the industry’s stocks have experienced 66.8% growth in total, as of the end of last week.
The industry continues to plug along and businesses continue to operate through the pandemic. Here are some of the major highlights from the past week: