Hot stock: Noble tumbles in active trade, prompting SGX query

THE share price of Noble Group tumbled 15 per cent in active trade on Tuesday, prompting a query from the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on its trading activity.

At 02:42pm, Noble was trading at S$0.138 a share, down S$0.024, or 14.815 per cent. Almost 171 million shares changed hands, making the commodities group the most actively traded stock on SGX.

Asked for a reason for the latest tumble, a broker attributed the sell-off to the prevailing negative market sentiment towards debt-ridden companies with weak balance sheets.

As of March 31, 2016, Noble's cash and cash equivalents stood at US$1.35 billion, compared to US$1.95 billion at the end of 2015. It had about US$3.69 billion in net debt.