A stock explosion in Hong Kong

Tech company AMTD saw its shares skyrocket from $7.80 to $2,555 – and no one knows why.

What’s wrong, Hong Kong?

Sometimes, the stock market is a mystery. It’s why there is no ‘winning formula’; sometimes things happen, and no one knows why.

One of these weird events happened last week. A Hong Kong-based tech company, AMTD Digital, went public in mid-July. It had no big announcements, and its description is, well, pretty bland. Some of its listed offerings are “digital financial services, digital media, content and marketing, SpiderNet ecosystem solutions, and digital investments.” Blah, blah, blah. But why then, did its stock price jump by 32,000%?  

Skeptic tank

The spike saw the company valued at $400 billion, so naturally, this drew plenty of attention online. Already a hot topic within Reddit’s WallStreetBets subreddit, there was plenty of skeptical chat surrounding the legitimacy of the stock – with many claiming it was simply a ‘pump and dump’. And with such a low volume of share trading behind the price surge, there’s plenty of reason to draw some shady conclusions.

AMTD has batted back, though. Their statement released last week said that “To our knowledge, there are no material circumstances, events nor other matters relating to our company’s business and operating activities since the IPO date”.

So, what’s in it for you? Whether you’re buying it or not, you may have missed the boat on making a buck out of AMTS shares. AMTD Digital and AMTD Idea Group both dropped huge figures towards the end of last week. It may be best to see how this pans out before you get behind it.