Zigzag Day at Alliance Imaging

An investor’s apparent attempt to sell a significant chunk of Alliance Imaging Inc. sent its shares to new lows Tuesday, but stock in the medical technology company nearly regained its value by the close of trading.

At one point, shares dropped as low as $3.25--a loss of more than a quarter of its value. The stock was down 25 cents when it closed at $4.25 on the NASDAQ exchange. The company has about 6.4 million shares outstanding.

“We had heard a holder tried to sell 50,000 shares,” said Vincent S. Pino, chief financial officer and executive vice president of the company. “But I have no idea if this information is 100% true.”

The drop came in a jittery market among institutional investors for companies that have had initial public offerings as well as health-related businesses, Pino said. Alliance Imaging went public in November at $8.50 per share.

The company announced Tuesday that it had signed a five-year contract to provide its magnetic resonance imaging services to Pendleton Memorial Methodist Hospital in New Orleans.