Jan. 1--Utahns with the foresight to own shares in Myriad Genetics or Merit Medical Systems were richly rewarded by those investments during the past year.

Despite sharp declines in the nation's stock markets in 2008 -- the Dow Jones industrial average fell 34 percent and the S&P 500 38 percent -- Myriad's shares closed the year at $66.32 for a staggering 43 percent gain. Merit's stock price advanced an eye-popping 29 percent to close the year at $17.88.

Myriad and Merit were the only two Utah-based companies listed on the Salt Lake Tribune /Bloomberg Index to see gains in their share prices in 2008. The other 24 companies that comprise the index, which measures the performance of Utah's largest publicly held companies, saw their share prices decline anywhere from 2 percent to 87 percent in value, and the index itself fell 29 percent in 2008.

Last week, Myriad revealed it was launching its sixth molecular diagnostic product. Known as "Prezeon," the test will be marketed to researchers and physicians and is designed help them understand the sensitivity of cancer patients to a range of chemotherapy drugs.

Personalized medicine products are important in the care and treatment of patients and also have an expanding role in reducing health care costs by helping physicians select the most cost effective treatment options, Myriad President Peter Meldrum said in announcing the launch of the new product.

Merit, a South Jordan-based

manufacturer of disposable medical products, released 15 new products in 2008.

"Some were singles rather than home runs, but they all helped contribute to our success last year," said Merit President Fred Lampropoulos. "We're a health care company with a growing bottom line, a strong cash position and innovative products. You can't ask for a more recession proof business than that."

In 2007, Merit earned 55 cents per share. For 2008, securities analysts who follow the company are projecting earnings of around 72 cents per share.

Barbara Walchli, manager of the Aquila Rocky Mountain Equity Fund, said the large presence of innovative health care and technology oriented companies in the Rockies helped the region slightly outperform the rest of the country.

Even companies such as Utah's Schiff Nutrition International, which saw its shares decline just 2 percent in value can be considered winners when compared to the huge losses suffered by the nation's major stock indexes.

For the six months ended Nov. 30, 2008, Schiff Nutrition's sales reached $95.1 million compared to $80.3 million for the same period a year earlier. The company manufactures and distributed branded and private label vitamins and nutritional supplements.

In 2008, though, even some of the state's best performing companies saw double-digit declines in their share prices.

Shares of Overstock.com, the state's eighth best performing stock, were down 29 percent for the year while shares of SkyWest Inc., the state's ninth best performing stock, fell 31 percent.

There also were some well-known Utah companies whose shares were hard hit by the stock market decline and deepening recession.

Zions Bancorp, the parent company of Zions First National Bank, saw its shares decline 49 percent last year. FX Energy's shares were off 53 percent.

Near the bottom of the index was Huntsman Corp., the chemicals conglomerate operated out of Salt Lake City and The Woodlands, Tex., that gave up 87 percent after the company announced it was terminating its merger agreement with Hexion Specialty Chemicals and would receive a payment of $1 billion as compensation.

Speculating on the company's declining share price, Huntsman Corp. President Peter Huntsman in mid-December suggested that some investors had owned the company's shares because they expected a court victory in the ongoing legal battles over the stalled merger, and not because they wanted to own a chemical maker.

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