Noble tumbles as S&P puts rating on review

New York

NOBLE Group Ltd, the commodity trader seeking to preserve its investment-grade status, fell in Singapore after Standard & Poor's joined Moody's Investors Service in reviewing the company's ratings amid concern about its liquidity.

"I would say there's more than a 50 per cent chance that Noble will be downgraded to junk," Trung Nguyen, a Singapore-based credit analyst at Lucror Analytics, said on Tuesday. "That will definitely affect their credit line and access to capital." The shares lost as much as 3.7 per cent to 39.5 Singapore cents, the lowest in more than a month, and closed at 40.5 cents. Noble stock remains this year's worst performer on the Straits Times Index after losing 65 per cent. The company's bonds due in 2020, its most liquid debt, were down 4.7 cents to 76.1 cents on the dollar, Bloomberg-compiled prices showed.