Noble shares jump 20% after confirming Q2 loss

[SINGAPORE] Shares of debt-laden commodities trader Noble Group surged as much as 20 per cent on Friday following second quarter earnings that showed no fresh causes for concern about the company.

"There was no new ground-breaking fear factor that was revealed," said Nicholas Teo, trading strategist at KGI Securities. "Most of the bad news is already in the price." At 0206 GMT (10:06am Singapore time), shares were up 10 per cent at S$0.38.5.

Noble Group reported a second quarter loss of US$1.75 billion on Thursday, weeks after warning it faced its steepest quarterly loss in a year and a half and would slash jobs and sell assets to cut debt.

Noble's market value has plunged by about 95 per cent to US$340 million from US$6 billion in February 2015, leading to rating agency downgrades, asset sales and fund raising to allay investor worries.

REUTERS