Benzinga's Small Cap Movers for Monday March 18, 2013

Below are highlights from Benzinga's daily coverage of small cap securities making big moves:

Fortune Industries

the Indianapolis, IN professional employer organization, rose 29% Monday on 17 times average volume. Fortune Industries announced Monday that the New York Stock Exchange has notified the Company about significant and unusual trading activity in the Company's shares on March 18, 2013, and requested the Company to respond by press release to the unusual activity. Ordinarily, it is the Company's policy not to comment on unusual market activity, but the Company has confirmed that it is not aware of any explanation beyond its most recent SEC filings for the high volume or unusual price activity of its shares today. Fortune Industries closed at $0.49 on Monday.

Premierwest Bancorp

, the Medford, OR bank holding company for PremierWest Bank, rose 21% Monday on 23 times average volume. PremierWest Bank and AmericanWest Bank announced Tuesday that PremierWest Bancorp

and affiliates of AmericanWest Bank have entered into an amendment to the Agreement and Plan of Merger relating to the proposed merger of PremierWest Bancorp with an affiliate of AmericanWest Bank. Under the revised terms, each outstanding share of PremierWest Bancorp common stock will be converted into the right to receive $2.00 in cash, which represents an additional $0.35 per share in cash consideration. The additional consideration totals approximately $3.5 million in additional cash proceeds to the holders of PremierWest common stock, which represents an increase of approximately 21% from the prior proposal and represents a premium of approximately 32.5% over the $1.51 per share closing price of PremierWest common stock on October 26, 2012, the trading day immediately prior to the announcement of the merger agreement, and a premium of approximately 40.3% over the average price in the 20-trading days prior to and including October 26, 2012. Premierwest Bancorp closed at $1.97 on Monday.

Pulse Electronics

, the San Diego, CA electronic components company, rose 29% Monday on average volume. Pulse Electronics Corporation introduced a central office (CO) VDSL2 splitter module Monday, with optional lightning and power fault protection. The module is designed with 6 pins, instead of the standard 4 pins. This enables a protective device, such as a sidactor, to be added on the board underneath the module and eliminates the need for a separate protection rack card, freeing up space for an extra multichannel card or to increase airflow for additional cooling. The pin location allows a fast-acting secondary over-voltage protector to be used to protect the filter from surge effects while maintaining good VDSL2 performance. The location may also help to meet ITU and Telcordia coordination requirements with any installed primary protectors, enabling selection of suitable secondary protectors to accommodate different countries and markets. Pulse Electronics closed at $0.39 on Monday.