Ropak Stock Jumps After Interest by Cruttenden : Market: Big investment banker buys about 10,000 shares as Fullerton company prepares for expansion.

Stock prices of Ropak Corp., a Fullerton maker of plastic container products, jumped almost 13% a share Monday, after strong initial interest from Cruttenden & Co., an Irvine-based investment bank.

Ropak shares were up 93 cents to close at $8.31 a share on Nasdaq trading volume of 154,700 shares, compared with an average daily volume of 11,700. During Monday trading, the stock reached a high of $8.50 a share, matching its 52-week high, achieved Aug. 26.

Ronald Cameron, chief financial officer for Ropak Corp., said that Pete Castellanos, an analyst with Cruttenden, Orange County’s largest investment banking firm, visited the company Friday.

“He was pleased with what he heard, so there has been activity in the buying side,” Cameron said.

But William Porter, director of trading for Cruttenden, said that, while he originally had put in an order to buy 20,000 shares of Ropak on Monday morning, the company ended up purchasing only about 10,000 shares.

“I don’t think we were much of a force in the stock,” he said.

Cameron said that Ropak has focused on the industrial market and plans to move into the consumer market with various products, including an eight-gallon container designed to hold dog food, he said.

For its second quarter ending June 30, Ropak reported revenue of $35.9 million, compared to $32 million for the same period in 1993. Net income for the quarter jumped to $2.3 million, or 46 cents a share, from $1.8 million, or 40 cents per share, last year.

With 650 employees nationwide, Ropak has 10 plants in the United States and Canada.