Six companies launched listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday, worth around $1.7bn combined, Bloomberg reports. This week is the busiest for debuts in the country since the week beginning 24 February, when 12 companies listed, galvanised by recent IPO successes from JD.com and NetEase.
Asian indices slump
Major indices across Asia plummeted at the start of the week, with the Nikkei 225 dropping the furthest yesterday. Despite this shock, and headlines that COVID-19 cases had exceeded 10 million globally, markets in Europe seemed largely undaunted, as did their US counterparts.
Hedge funds bag €1bn from Wirecard
The recent collapse of Wirecard’s stock worked out well for hedge funds, which gained more than €1bn in profit in a week, the Financial Times reports. The stock, one of the most shorted in Europe in 2020, dropped from around €140 in late April to €3.31 yesterday.
A cautionary tale
Luckin Coffee’s share price is practically worthless as the company faces delisting from the Nasdaq. In April, the stock plummeted following allegations of accounting malpractice that culminated in the firing of a number of senior staff. The stock closed at $1.38 last week. Just a few months before it had traded around $835.
Hedge funds shift out of short positions
A number of hedge funds have rushed to cover their short positions in US stocks. The S&P 500’s recent rally, “one of the most unloved in recent financial history”, has led short interest as a percentage of shares outstanding in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust — worth $266bn — to drop from 6.7% at the end of May to 4.9% on Friday, according to IHS Markit data and reported by Bloomberg.
Earnings preview
Delivery giant FedEx is due to report its Q4 results later today and, with the stock down around 14% year to date, investors and traders will be keen to see how the company has performed since both ending its partnership with Amazon, and the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Coronavirus cancels guidance
Uncertainty from the coronavirus has led to 218 S&P 500 companies — more than 40% — to scrap guidance, according to The Wall Street Journal and data from Dow Jones NewsWires. Those withholding or withdrawing guidance have seen an average share price loss of 18.2% YTD, compared to the 6.9% drop in the S&P 500.
Share price spike a Sinch
Cloud-based platform provider Sinch has recorded a meteoric rise so far this year, benefitting from the pandemic-induced work-from-home trend, to become the Stoxx 600 Index’s best performer so far this year, Bloomberg reports. At yesterday’s close, the stock had risen 160% YTD to reach SEK 771.
