Elon Musk-led SpaceX’s first week as a public company sparks market mania

Brian Belski, CEO and chief investment officer at Humilis Investment Strategies, joins BNN Bloomberg to provide a wrap on the markets.

SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO fuelled a trading frenzy in its first week as a public company, with its shares surging as retail investors and options traders rushed to bet on the Elon Musk-steered rockets-to-AI firm.

Its shares have jumped nearly 40 per cent from its June 12 IPO price of US$135, pushing its market value above $2 trillion as it briefly joined the ranks of the world’s top five most valuable companies.

Here’s a look at how SpaceX has fared since its IPO:

Day 1

SpaceX’s shares jumped 19 per cent in their Nasdaq debut on June 12, when it raised more than $75 billion in a record offering.

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The share pop vaulted its valuation past the $2 trillion mark to make it the sixth-biggest U.S. company by market capitalization at one point, despite being currently unprofitable.

Trading frenzy ensued

The turnover in the rocket company’s shares, or the approximate dollar value of the day’s trades, was consistently highest among large U.S.-listed firms for the first few days.

At one point, it was more than 3.5 times that of Nvidia, which typically leads in terms of turnover.

Retail traders jump in

SpaceX allocated a record 20 per cent of its IPO shares for retail investors. Traders lapped up millions of dollars’ worth of shares and made it one of the most heavily bought stocks last week, according to Vanda Research data.

On the day of the debut alone, net buying stood at $117.6 million - the largest retail net buying for any debut ever.

Options trading started with a bang

Trading in SpaceX options began on June 16 and it received high interest from investors, with trading volume surging to a record high and bullish activity dominating, underscoring strong demand as investors seek avenues for exposure to Musk’s new ambitions.

How it fared compared to Tesla

SpaceX saw explosive gains in its first three trading sessions, briefly pushing its valuation past Microsoft’s to make it the fourth most valuable company in the world.

However, the stock ran into turbulence in the latter half of the week - a reaction that looked similar to that of Tesla at the time of its 2010 debut.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan, Medha Singh and Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru and Saqib Iqbal Ahmed in New York; Editing by Pooja Desai)