Following the medtech industry’s rapid rise early in the month, a plateau was inevitable, and that trend continued through the holiday week.
MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — finished last week at 98.23 (Nov. 27), marking a 0.2% uptick from the 97.99 points registered at the end of the week prior (Nov. 20).
Stocks in the industry had been on the rise over the past several weeks, following the election of Joe Biden as President of the U.S., positive news regarding the effectiveness of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, and shortly after that, the report of Moderna’s 94.5% effective vaccine candidate further contributed to a leap.
On Nov. 9, the index set an all-time high since it started being recorded on Jan. 1, 2001, reaching the 100.65-point total. It has since dipped slightly and then plateaued but remains in the region of its highest ever mark.
That peak saw the index sitting more than eight points ahead of the pre-pandemic high of 92.32, which the market reached on Feb. 19, and now it appears the index is leaving any other previous high points well behind it. To date, the industry’s growth from that initial high point stands at 6.4%.
Medtech’s stock performance differed slightly from the overall markets, with the S&P 500 Index performing well with a 2.3% rise, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was nearly identical to the S&P, posting a 2.2% increase.
Medtech’s lowest point during the COVID-19 pandemic remains at 62.13 on March 23. Since then, the industry’s stocks have experienced 58.1% growth in total, as of the end of last week, while the growth to the 100.65 high point is 62%.
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:
