Shipping stock trading volume hits new ‘Trump rally’ peak
Greg Miller, Senior Editor | 15 November 2016
After the first three days of the post-US-election shipping stock surge, it was hard to believe shares could go higher and trade faster. They did. Volume reached stratospheric levels on the fourth day of what Forbes has dubbed ‘The Donald Trump Shipping Stock Boom’.
On 15 November, trading volumes spiked for shares of bulker/container ship owner Euroseas, product tanker owner Top Ships, box ship owner Diana Containerships and bulker owner Seanergy. In addition to these four owners, volumes since 9 November have been unusually heavy for bulker owners DryShips, Eagle Bulk, Navios Holdings, and Scorpio Bulkers.
To put the scope of the activity in perspective, IHS Fairplay analysed the aggregate trading volume of these eight companies during the 7–15 November trading period (see chart below). Volume on 15 November for these companies’ stocks was 50 times the volume on 9 November. In the case of DryShips and Euroseas, more shares have traded hands in a single day than the total number of shares outstanding, meaning that a large percentage of these companies’ public ownership has switched hands multiple times within a single trading session.
The highly unusual behaviour of shipping stocks in recent trading sessions has been attributed to a confluence of factors, including expectations for fiscal stimulus and inflation under a Trump administration, rising dry bulk rates, rising iron ore and coal demand and commodity pricing, a ‘short squeeze’ on investors, and a pile-in by momentum investors.
Market valuations of public shipowners have rapidly increased over a very short period of time. As of the closing bell on 15 November, US-listed shipping shares boasting the top 20 percentage gains over their closing price on 9 November were: DryShips +1,331%, Euroseas +260%, Diana Containerships +178%, Globus Maritime +173%, Top Ships +129%, Seanergy +118%, Eagle Bulk +98%, Genco +78%, Navios Holdings +67%, Danaos +43%, Scorpio
fairplay.ihs.com/commerce/article/4277976/volume-in-shipping-stock-%E2%80%98trump-rally%E2%80%99-reaches-new-heights
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