Dynegy among winners of annual Stocky Awards

By David Wilson
Bloomberg News Service

Lucent Technologies Inc., a maker of communications equipment, is the winner of the Sins of the Father Award in the annual Stocky Awards. Advertiser library photo • Jan. 24, 2001

Each award is uniquely suited to its recipient, though there are two holdover categories from last year's awards.

Who Pulled the Plug? Award: Energy traders accounted for the year's four biggest losses among members of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Dynegy Inc.'s 96 percent plunge was the steepest. El Paso Corp. lost 84 percent, Mirant Corp. tumbled 89 percent and Williams Cos. skidded 91 percent.

The stocks sank as Enron Corp.'s bankruptcy, revelations of sham transactions and falling electricity prices caused trading to collapse.

All That Glitters Award: Gold stocks rallied as the metal's price climbed 23 percent, its biggest full-year gain since 1979. Newmont Mining Corp., the world's largest gold producer, was the S&P 500's third-best performer this year.

The Amex Gold Bugs Index, a measure consisting of 11 mining companies based in the United States and Canada, more than doubled. Hecla Mining Co. led the advance as its shares soared almost sixfold. Newmont Mining's 53 percent increase was the third smallest.

Sins of the Father Award: Lucent Technologies Inc., the second-biggest U.S. maker of communications equipment, completed its second spinoff in June. Agere Systems Inc., a communication-chipmaker, became independent 21 months after Avaya Inc., the largest U.S. maker of office-telephone equipment.

Shares of all three companies tumbled this year. Lucent lost 75 percent. Agere's Class A shares fell 78 percent; Class B, which began trading in May, slid 70 percent. Avaya dropped 82 percent, one of the S&P 500's 10 biggest losses.

Incredible Shrinking Company Award: AT&T Corp. sold its cable- television business to Comcast Corp. for about $59 billion in November. The sale was completed immediately after the unit, AT&T Broadband, was spun off.

AT&T Broadband was the 11th spinoff from the largest U.S. long-distance company since 1984, when its local-phone business went to seven "baby Bells." Lucent and NCR Corp. became stand-alone companies in 1996, and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. gained independence in 2001. After adjusting for the latest spinoff, AT&T's shares dropped 30 percent this year.

Worst to First Award: Providian Financial Corp., the seventh- largest U.S. issuer of Visa and MasterCard credit cards, had the S&P 500's biggest percentage gain this year after posting its biggest loss last year.

As Providian sold loans to raise cash and fired workers to cut costs, the company's shares climbed 82 percent in 2002. They plummeted 94 percent in 2001, and recently traded at $6.49, or less than a tenth of its record high of $69, set in April 1999.

Better luck in 2003.