Local stocks in 2016
* Astec Industries rose 65.7 percent to close at $67.46 per share * Unum Group rose 32 percent to close at $43.93 per share * Miller Industries rose 21.4 percent to close at $26.45 per share * Mohawk Industries rose 5.4 percent to close at $199.68 * Covenant Transport rose 2.4 percent to close at $19.34 per share * CBL & Associates Properties fell by 7 percent to close at $11.50 per share * Dixie Group fell by 31.2 percent to close at $3.60 per share
The market value of Chattanooga’s publicly traded stocks jumped by more than $3 billion during 2016 as the economy continued to improve and major companies benefited from both higher interest rates and the prospect of more infrastructure spending.
Among the seven major publicly traded companies based in the Chattanooga area, the share prices of five rose in 2017 – three of them by more than 20 percent.
Buoyed by the presidential election of Donald Trump and the prospect of a trillion-dollar spending package for infrastructure improvements, Astec Industries was the biggest winner among local stock-traded companies this year, jumping by nearly 66 percent to close the year near its all-time high. The Chattanooga-based maker of asphalt paving and other heavy machinery and equipment topped its 2007 high this summer and rose even higher on expectations of more road building next year.