Networking company said it’s ‘not aware’ of any developments or changes to its business to explain the stock’s move
Shares of Nokia Corp. powered up in very volatile and active trading Wednesday, enough for the Finland-based networking company to comment on the activity.
“Nokia is not aware of any material, undisclosed corporate developments or material change in its business or affairs that has not been publicly disclosed that would account for the recent increase in the market price or trading volume of its shares,” the company said in a statement.
The stock NOK, -28.40% pared intraday gains of as much as 107.0%, but still soared 38.5% to close Wednesday at a 2-year high of $6.55. That was the biggest one-day percentage gain since it started trading in February 1991.
Trading volume spiked up to 1.14 billion shares, also a record, and well above the full-day average of about 47.3 million shares.
Nokia’s stock was halted five times for volatility, and was also halted once for news before the company commented on the stock movement.
Nokia’s stock was the second-most active on the New York Stock Exchange, behind only the 1.25 billion shares traded in AMC Entertainment Holding Inc.’s stock AMC, -56.63%. AMC has been part of a group of stocks, including GameStop Corp.’s GME, -44.29%, that have been skyrocketing as investors flocked to potential short-squeeze candidates.
Don’t miss: GameStop, AMC trading are now being restricted at TD Ameritrade, Schwab.
But while Nokia’s short interest was relatively high at about 50.5 million shares, according to the latest data — AMC’s short interest was about 39 million shares — short interest as a percent of the public float was relatively low at 0.9%; AMC’s short interest as a percent of float was about 69%.
The previous records for Nokia’s stock were a gain of 31.3% and volume of 591.2 million shares, both reached on Sept. 3, 2013, after the company announced the sale of its devices and services business to Microsoft Corp. MSFT for EUR3.8 billion ($5 billion).
Nokia’s stock has rallied 61.7% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.98% has gained 14.7%.