Shares of publicly traded UK-based brokerage Plus500 (PLUS) have been experiencing a wild ride with the company's market capitalization shrinking by more than $150 million at one point in time. As trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) drew to a close, the company’s shares rebounded in last minute trading on strong volumes.
On Tuesday, trading on the LSE started from 560 pence, but as the day progressed the company lost substantial ground to trade at a daily low of 464 p. A staggering amount of bids materialized in the last minutes of the trading session, with about 1.5 million shares traded in the final two minutes of the day, pushing the price to close at 520 pence.
Today however, the London opening prices are hovering around 480 p again, just around the levels before the huge bid materialized around close yesterday. Profit taking has been the theme over these past couple of days, however, as at time of publication there was no clear evidence as to any extra news which might be the cause of the huge price swings
GAIN Capital Sheds $30 million in Market Capitalization
In a similar fashion, but not in a roller coaster mode, across the Atlantic GAIN Capital’s shares dropped by 8.1% in New York trading yesterday. No extra news has been released by the company, as the order flow seems to be the main driver without providing much info about the causes for the wild price swings. As has been the case many times, we might get some news soon, which could explain the move in share prices. GAIN Capital’s (GCAP) market cap shrunk by a touch more than $30 million in trading on Tuesday.
For now, our best guess would be that after a material pickup in Volatility in the beginning of June, we have dropped into familiar ranges again and as slow summer trading is closing in, the lack of price swings will materially impact more FX brokerages’ revenues going forward.
