Longtime leader falls to 3rd place

3/22/2005

Energy stocks and volatile markets helped propel a new team into the leadership of The Blade's Student Stock Contest.

With just seven weeks to go, Econ II at Toledo Accelerated Academy has overtaken the Survivors from Clay High School for first place.

Moving to second from fourth is the Super Stox team from Fairfield Elementary in Maumee.

Bill Pinney, a Toledo Accelerated teacher who advises Econ II, said team members closely tracked stock prices last week and were fairly certain they would take the top spot.

"I'm really proud of them," he said.

One of the biggest developments last week was that more teams' hypothetical $40,000 portfolios move into the red, said Brian Linn, vice president of contest co-sponsor Sky Investments, which is a unit of Sky Bank.

Six of 22 teams were in the black, down from eight the week before.

Econ II's portfolio has grown to $44,213 on the strength of energy concerns Kerr-McGee Corp., of Oklahoma City, and Murphy Oil Corp., of El Dorado, Ariz.

The team's other stocks are Internet search engine Google Inc. and Biosite Inc., a medical diagnostics firm based in San Diego.

The Survivors, the previous leader, fell to third place after being hurt by the performance of electrical supply firm Wesco International Inc., of Pittsburgh.

The shares lost $5.73, or 16 percent, last week after disclosure of a planned sale of a large block of stock by a major investor.

The second-place team is a fifth-grade class that chose a group of computer and electronic firms that make products students agreed "everybody likes to use and watch," said teacher Barbara Coleman.

That portfolio, worth $42,893, as of Friday, consists of video game maker Gamestop Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Google, and Pixar, a digital animation studio.

Participating in the 16-week contest are 250 students from 14 northwest Ohio schools.

Prizes are $250 for the winning school plus $250 in gift certificates for the winning team; $150 for the second-place school; and $100 for the third-place school.

The contest, also sponsored by The Blade's Newspaper in Education program, began Jan. 14 and ends April 29.