Selling sentiment

The selling sentiment continued to drive down shipping stocks Wednesday with shares in Londo, Oslo and Copenhagen again taking massive hits.

The TradeWinds Shipping Index shows the extent of Wednesday’s selloff.

Frontline, Golden Ocean, Seadrill, Torm, Jinhui, Globus Maritime, and Goldenport all saw over a tenth shaved off their market value as the sell-off hit all shipping sectors.

One analyst said: “Right now there is nothing driving the falls except the sentiment of selling off.

“It is very difficult to know what is happening, especially on the tanker side where rates are fairly healthy. But the stocks keep on falling and falling.

“There is a massive erosion of values right now. The market is very, very, very bad. Everything is down to half of what it was earlier this year.”

London-listed Globus plunged 17.76% to £2.20 ($3.81) per share this afternoon with Goldenport shedding 13.06% to £2.13 per share.

John Fredriksen’s bulker company Golden Ocean lost 12.02% to NOK 10.36 ($1.69) per share, with Jinhui shares falling 15.52% to NOK 14.70 each.

Denmark’s Torm dumped 15.05% to DKK 79 ($14.50) per share, with Norden down 8.28% at DKK 171.75 per share.

The plunge among bulker stocks comes as the Baltic Dry Index fell to its lowest level since June 2006.

But with screens lighting up red on stock exchanges all around Europe, analysts are reluctant to link today’s falls to single indicators.

“It is a massive hit on all shares and not anything particularly related to shipping,” TradeWinds is told.

Tanker owner Frontline, which fell heavily in early trading today, closed down 10.74% in Oslo at NOK 216 per share. Fredriksen’s Seadrill fell 11.90% to NOK 74 per share.

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