US gun stocks soared Wednesday, bucking a sharp Wall Street sell-off, as President Barack Obama's election to a second term sparked fears of tighter gun laws.
As the US stock markets sank, shares in Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. shot up 7.7 percent.
Sturm, Ruger & Co., which bills itself as the only full-line manufacturer of American-made firearms, jumped 5.4 percent.
The politically powerful National Rifle Association had backed defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney, warning that an Obama second term would be the "biggest threat" to the rights of gun owners.
"He wants to bring back the 1994 semi-auto ban; his administration has already imposed an illegal registration scheme on certain rifle sales," the NRA said in a statement in mid-October.
"There is no way to know how far he would go to use his executive powers to curb our rights if he didn't have to face re-election," the NRA said.
