Why Viking Therapeutics Stock Popped Nearly 4% Today

Numerous companies in the healthcare sector are feverishly busy developing obesity drugs, as these products have taken the medical world by storm. One of the more prominent developers, clinical-stage biotech Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX), saw its share price rise by almost 4% on Thursday on the back of encouraging research about a certain property of such treatments.

The stock's rise was more than good enough to convincingly beat the 0.3% bump higher of the benchmark S 500 index on the day.

Not only are obesity drugs effective in reducing body weight, it seems they have knock-on effects on certain health conditions, too -- which is one of the major reasons investors have been hot on companies selling or developing them.

Source Fool.com