Mindset shift needed at Noble Group

SHARES in commodities firm Noble Group may have enjoyed some respite from their recent weakness when they bounced S$0.06 from a six-year low to close at S$0.705 on Thursday after its chairman Richard Elman sent a letter to shareholders and staff to reassure them that management is working hard behind the scenes. But unless the company takes radical steps to win over the market's confidence, there is every chance that weakness may quickly resume.

Noble's shares have been falling for months and almost all sessions over that time; they have not strayed far from the top of the daily lists of actively traded stocks, so the slide has come in high volume.

This cannot be a good sign, especially when the weakness has been accompanied by a deafening silence from the company in the face of mounting public scrutiny of its accounts.