We're almost at the halfway point of 2017, and stock prices for most materials firms remain in good shape.
Plastic additives/specialty chemicals maker Chemours Co. has led the way in 2017 for the 16 publicly held materials firms tracked by Plastics News. That firm's per-share stock price has soared almost 63 percent from Jan. 1 to the close of trading June 26.
Composites supplier Rogers Corp. was next up with a gain of almost 41 percent, while specialty chemicals and plastics producer Huntsman Corp. had seen its price increase almost 33 percent. Huntsman had received a bit of a boost from the May 22 announcement of its merger with Swiss firm Clariant International Ltd.
After those three, eight materials firms had seen price gains of 10-20 percent in that time period. That list includes Kraton Corp., Celanese Corp., Trinseo, Westlake Chemical Corp., Dow Chemical Co., DuPont Co., Eastman Chemical Co. and PolyOne Corp.
Five materials firms might already be looking to flip the calendar to 2018. Hexcel Corp.'s per-share price essentially was flat for the period, while that of global polyolefins leader LyondellBasell Industries was down almost 6 percent.
Omnova Solutions, Nexeo Solutions and A. Schulman Inc. also are no fans of 2017, with stock price declines of 10-15 percent so far.
Most of the firms listed here outpaced the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the broader S&P 500 in the same comparison. The Dow was up more than 8 percent, while the S&P grew almost 9 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq market jumped 16 percent in that stretch of almost six months.