Jul 14 (Portal) – Shares of Nikola Corp (NKLA.O) rose 14% on Friday, a day after a short squeeze sent the electric truckmaker’s shares higher in the busiest trading session on record.
The stock rose nearly 61% on Thursday to a more than four-month high after Nikola struck a deal to sell 50 electric vehicles to BayoTech and buy low-carbon hydrogen from the company.
Nikola’s short squeeze after short sellers rushed to exit bearish bets on a rise in the share price led to a record 317 million shares traded on Thursday.
Last week, Nikola reported a sequential increase in EV sales in the second quarter, a positive sign for the startup struggling with cash constraints and stiff competition.
According to the JPMorgan tracker, Nikola was also the most traded stock among retailers, behind Tesla (TSLA.O) in the previous session, indicating continued strong interest in EV stocks by individual investors.
“We expect the more aggressive retail speculators to add bets in out-of-the-money call options on EV companies and other high-beta retail favorites this earnings season,” wrote Lucas Mantle, analyst at Vanda Research, in a note.
This week, shares of Nikola are up 57%. Among other EV companies, large out-of-the-money call option purchases for Rivian (RIVN.O) helped the stock post a record 48% surge last week.
About 22.7% of Nikola shares were in a short position as of July 12, according to analytics firm Ortex.
“Nikola’s recent price rise very likely appears to have been accelerated by short sellers closing some of their positions and increasing buying pressure on the stock,” said Peter Hillerberg, co-founder of Ortex.
Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Edited by Shinjini Ganguli
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