The Mesoblast limited (ASX: MSB) share price took flight on Monday, soaring 9% to an intraday high of $1.02 before losing some ground in afternoon trading.
Shares in the ASX biotech company closed at 99 cents apiece today, up 6.45% from 93 cents at the market open.
The overall healthcare sector kicked off the week well, too, with the S&P/ASX 200 Health Care Index (ASX: XHJ) gaining 0.48%.
On a broader scale, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) petered out after a healthy start this morning to finish an unremarkable 0.17% lower.
Let's take a look at what may have influenced the Mesoblast share price on Monday.
What happened?
There's no news to report from Mesoblast today, and in fact, an absence of noteworthy announcements from the company for some time.
Our Fool writers last wrote about Mesoblast at the start of this month when we covered the company's quarterly activities and cashflow report.
However, there are a couple of reasons that could help explain why Mesoblast's shares have jumped higher. For one, the report noted that the company expected to receive FDA clearance to trial rexlemestrocel-L as a treatment for chronic back pain near the end of this year.
Rexlemestrocel-L and Remestemcel-L are the company's mesenchymal precursor cell (MPC) products that Mesoblast is developing to treat various diseases.
Another possible share price driver today is that its annual general meeting (AGM) is approaching fast. Mesoblast will hold its AGM on Wednesday this week in Melbourne.
Some measures shareholders will vote on include the election and re-election of company directors and ratifying the issue of fully paid ordinary shares to major shareholders.
Mesoblast share price snapshot
The Mesoblast share price is down 29.29% year to date and a hefty 42% over the past 12 months. In comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index is down a respective 5.9% and 2.9% across the same time periods.
The company's market capitalisation is around $729.7 million.
