Doha: Saxo Bank, the leading Fintech specialist focused on multi-asset trading and investment, has named Tesla as the most traded stock among its GCC-based clients in Q1 of 2020 ahead of Alibaba, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon in a three-month period heavily impacted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a slow climb in January, the COVID-19 pandemic flushed all profits down the drain in a matter of weeks. This was mostly personified by Tesla’s Q1 rollercoaster, going from a short squeeze which sparked a 50 percent increase in the stock price to being hit by the COVID-19 lockdown, which made it drop back to where the year started. Following a fantastic year in 2019, the market took a tumble in the first months of 2020, resulting in a 24 percent drop on the S&P 500.
“Over the last year we have continuously asked ourselves ‘can this really go on?’. Q1 showed us it could not, however no one expected a black swan event like a pandemic to cause such a supply and demand shock,” said Peter Garnry (pictrued), Head of Equity Strategy in Saxo Bank.
A few months ago a global lockdown would have been stranger than fiction, but as this reality dawns, it is important to understand what is to come.
“Not since 2008 has the world been this uncertain and out of balance. As equity prices reflect the future and growth prospects, they are the most sensitive to the current crisis. The last couple of months have given investors a glimpse of what’s lurking around the corner. Countries have entered lockdown, hospitals have been overstretched and demand for certain products and services has been in freefall,” says Garnry.
