Genetic Technologies shares rise 30 percent in heavy trading

(Reuters) - Genetic Technologies Ltd's (GENE.O) (GTG.AX) U.S.-listed shares closed up 30 percent on Friday, capping a two-and-a-half week spate of heavy trading during which its market valuation increased by 533 percent.

U.S. shares in the Australian genetic testing company closed at $8.04 on Friday on no apparent news during the day. They rose as much as 54.6 percent earlier in the session to touch a nearly 12-month high of $9.49 per share.

The stock closed at $1.27 on Jan. 28, a day before the company announced that up to six new breast cancer diagnosis and treatment centers were expected to begin offering its BREVAGenplus product to at-risk patients between January and March. It describes BREVAGenplus as an enhanced version of its breast cancer assessment test.

"It hit a tipping point because of their news announcement and people noticed so they got the volume and it increased in price and after that it just snowballed," said John Kirkland, managing director at Ironridge Global Partners in San Francisco.

Ironridge is Genetic Technologies' biggest institutional shareholder, according to Reuters data based on the latest public ownership reports.

Kirkland said that while the news was not very significant, Genetic Technologies "was so unwatched it was the tree falling in the woods. The moment somebody paid attention to it, it just exploded."

Genetic Technologies saw a 751-fold spike in trading volume on Jan. 29, when 39.69 million shares changed hands compared with 52,834 shares in the previous session, and its shares almost tripled to $3.61.

In the last 12 days, volume has averaged 14.5 million shares compared with its 12-day average of just over 80,000 for Jan. 28. By the end of Friday 36.4 million shares had changed hands.

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