Subject: For Stock Funds, '90 Was Year of Unexpected 
Date: Published: 1/7/91 (68 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Quarterly Review of Mutual Funds:
    For Stock Funds, '90 Was Year of Unexpected
    ----
    By Jonathan Clements
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    For stock fund investors, 1990 just didn't turn out the
 way it was supposed to.

[67 lines irrelevant to AIDS have been omitted.  -- sysop.]

   12-Month Leader
   Fidelity Select-Biotechnology                     +44.38%
    Fidelity Investments' sector funds, which each invest in a
 single industry, are notorious for giving shareholders a
 rollercoaster ride.
    Lately, however, Fidelity Select-Biotechnology has put on
 a gravity-defying performance.  After surging 43.89% in 1989,
 the fund leaped an additional 44.38% in 1990.
    Heady stuff indeed.  Yet the fund's manager, Michael
 Gordon, is modest about his success.  "It's very
 straightforward," he says.  "The fund is required to be in
 biotech stocks, and biotech stocks had a great year in 1990."
    The fund has more than 20% of its assets in just three
 stocks:  Amgen Inc., Genentech Inc. and Immunex Corp. 
 Genentech's stock finished the year unchanged, but
 shareholders reaped a large one-time payment during the year
 when Roche Holding Ltd.  acquired 60% of Genentech.  The other
 two stocks were bigger winners.  Immunex was up 86% for the
 year, and Amgen climbed 154%.
    Amgen now is the fund's largest holding.  Mr. Gordon
 reckons the stock is still attractive, despite last year's
 huge run-up.  "If I had to pick one stock for the next five
 years, it would be Amgen," he says.
    In 1989, Amgen launched Epogen, a drug that stimulates red
 blood cell production.  So far, the product has been used to
 treat kidney dialysis patients suffering from anemia.  But
 other uses may lie ahead.  Johnson & Johnson, which is
 licensed by Amgen to sell the drug, won Food and Drug
 Administration approval last week to market Epogen to AIDS
 patients.  As a result, Amgen should benefit from a growing
 stream of royalty income generated by Johnson & Johnson's
 sales.
    Amgen has another major drug in the works, Neupogen, which
 helps to boost a patient's immune system.  Mr. Gordon expects
 the drug to get FDA approval early this year.  He also thinks
 Amgen, one of the biggest players in the biotechnology field,
 will reap additional gains by forming partnerships with
 smaller firms that are having trouble getting their products
 to market.
    Mr. Gordon reckons Amgen will earn $1.40 a share for the
 12 months ending March 1991, and more than $2 a share in
 fiscal 1992.  The stock closed Friday at $60, down 12.5 cents,
 in over-the-counter trading.
    Mr. Gordon is optimistic about the long-term prospects for
 biotechnology stocks.  He cautions, however, that "in 1989 and
 1990, the stocks dramatically outperformed the market, and
 it's difficult to believe that that performance will go on
 uninterrupted."

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