Xencor Sharply Higher After Deal With Novartis

Xencor

shares are trading higher by $4.37 at $16.91 in Tuesday's session. The catalyst for the rally is the company has announced a strategic collaboration with Novartis

. Afer a sharply higher open, it only retreated $0.32 to $14.78 before continuing its move higher. The ensuing rally has taken the issue to $18.19 before falling back to the $17 area. That marks the highest level for the issue since it peaked on September 21 at $18.95. Today's price action is taking place on much higher than average volume. With three hours remaining it has traded 2.1M shares compared with its 20 day average of $291K.