We recently published a list of Five Chinese Firms Dominate Friday’s Top 10 Gainers. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) stands against the other friday’s top gainers.

The stock market suffered a bloodbath on Friday, with major indices posting whopping declines, as investors sold off positions for saver havens amid concerns about a slowing economy and sticky inflation.

The Dow Jones fell by 1.69 percent, the S&P declined by 1.71 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq nosedived by 2.20 percent.

Meanwhile, 10 stocks—predominantly Chinese firms—defied a broader market downturn, clocking in gains.

To come up with Friday’s best performers, we considered only the stocks with $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.

Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Pharmaceutical giant Moderna Inc. saw its share prices grow by 5.34 percent on Friday to finish at $35.53 apiece following news that a new coronavirus with pandemic potential was discovered in China.

MRNA traded higher in line with its counterparts Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and Novovax Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX), with investors repositioning their portfolios on the belief that the newly identified virus could lead to increased demand for vaccines and propel sales.

According to reports, researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology found a new coronavirus strain, HKU5-CoV-2. The strain was found in bats and bears a close resemblance to SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, and was even closer to MERS, which has a higher mortality rate.

According to the study led by virologist Shi Zhengli, the HKU5-CoV-2 can infiltrate human cells similarly to SARS-CoV-2 and pose a significant risk to humans.

Overall, MRNA ranks 8th on our list of friday’s top gainers. While we acknowledge the potential of MRNA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as MRNA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.