In a nutshell, here’s what happened. A small Canadian oil and gas company’s IPO popped for an unexpected opening-day gain of over 100 percent. A biopharmaceutical IPO cut its price and its IPO unexpectedly gained 20 percent in the aftermarket. A REIT deal was good for an expected opening-day gain of 50 cents a share.

The Unexpected:
JED Oil (JDO: chart) priced its IPO of 1.67 million shares at $5.50 a share to raise $9.2 million on Monday, April 5, 2004. Nobody expected much from the IPO in the aftermarket. It was a small offering, slightly over $9 million. Major institutional investors usually don’t buy stock in small deals. Nevertheless, the IPO opened at $10 a share and closed its first day of trading at $11.20 a share -- up 103.6 percent from its initial offering price.

That was unexpected. JED Oil turned out to be a moonshot.

The JED Oil IPO became the 239th new issue to close its opening day with a gain of 100 percent or more, according to available records. The first was the Oct. 14, 1980, IPO of Genentech. The JED Oil IPO was the first since the Nov. 7, 2000, public offering of Transmeta (TMTA: chart) to gain 100 percent or more on opening day.

There’s one reason why the JED Oil IPO did so well: Oil. On April 1, 2004, OPEC cut oil output. The cut in production followed a jump in oil prices earlier this year to a 13-year high – within striking distance of $40 a barrel.

Memory Pharmaceuticals (MEMY: chart) priced its IPO at $7 a share on Monday, April 5, 2004. The deal had been cut 50 percent from the mid-point of its $13- to $15-a-share filing range. The deal opened at $7.50 a share and hit a high of $9.36 a share before closing its opening day at $8.40 a share -- up 20 percent from its initial offering price.

That was unexpected.

Question: Why did the Memory IPO do so well? The answer: Take a look at the last three biopharmaceutical companies to have gone public. Each IPO did well in the aftermarket AFTER cutting their proposed offering prices. They were:

-- Anadys Pharmaceuticals (ANDS: chart), a San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company developing drugs to treat hepatitis, priced its IPO at $7 a share on April 5, 2004. The deal was cut 41.7 percent from the mid-point of its $11- to $13-a-share filing range. The stock closed its opening day at $7.06 a share. It closed Thursday, April 8, 2004, at $7.95 -- up 13.6 percent from its initial offering price.

-- Santarus(SNTS: chart), a San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company developing products to prevent and treat gastrointestinal diseases and disorders, priced its IPO at $9 a share on March 31, 2004. The deal was cut 25 percent from the mid-point of its $11- to $13-a-share filing range. The stock closed its opening day at $10.10 a share. It closed Thursday, April 8, 2004, at $12.33 -- up 37 percent from its initial offering price.

-- Tercica (TRCA: chart), a South San Francisco-based biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for diabetes and human growth disorders, priced its IPO at $9 a share. The deal was cut 40 percent from the mid-point of its $14- to $16-a-share filing range. The stock closed its opening day at $9 a share. It closed Thursday, April 8, 2004, at $9.90 -- up 10 percent from its initial offering price.

The Expected:
Arbor Realty Trust (ABR: chart) priced its IPO at $20 a share on Tuesday, April 6, 2004. That was within its $19- to $20-a-share filing range. The stock opened at $20.05 a share and climbed to a high of $20.60 a share before closing at $20.50 a share --- up 2.15 percent from its initial offering price.

Again, that was expected.

Real estate investment trusts usually don’t get off to jackrabbit starts on their opening days. Here’s what happened to the last three REIT IPOs:

-- Affordable Residential Communities (ARC: chart) priced its IPO at $19 a share on Feb. 11, 2004. The stock closed its opening day at $19 a share, unchanged from its initial offering price. It closed Thursday, April 8, 2004, at $17.79 a share -- down 6.4 percent from its offering price.

-- Sunset Financial Resources (SFO: chart) priced its IPO at $13 a share on March 17, 2004. The stock closed its opening day at $12.75 a share, down 1.9 percent from its initial offering price. It closed Thursday, April 8, 2004, at $11.63 a share -- down 10.5 percent from its offering price.

-- Capital Lease Funding (LSE: chart) priced its IPO at $10.50 a share on March 18, 2004. The stock closed its opening day at $13.41 a share, up 27.7 percent from its initial offering price. It closed Thursday, April 8, 2004, at $12.03 a share -- up 14.6 percent from its offering price.