Victrex Shares Fall Sharply in Early Trading Today

Victrex plc (LON: VCT), the FTSE 350 specialty chemicals maker, fell as much as 6.65% to 914.8p by 9.30am in London today, in a session that was still running. The shares had traded between 910.0p and 998.0p so far this morning.

The range so far was wide by Victrex’s own recent standards, running from a low of 910.0p to a high of 998.0p during the session. By 9.30am the shares were changing hands at 914.8p, around 8.3% below that early high, though still above the session’s low as the stock pared part of its fall.

How unusual this is

The 6.65% fall ranks as the largest single-session move Victrex shares have made in the past 126 trading sessions, roughly six months, drawn from 321 sessions of trading history examined for comparison. That history covers more than a year of trading, giving a broad base against which to judge how unusual today’s swing has been. The scale of the drop stands out clearly against the pattern of daily price swings over the past six months, shown in the chart below.

Turnover so far was 0.29 times Victrex’s average volume for a session, with 103,407 shares changing hands against an average session volume of 362,692 shares, a level well below what the stock typically sees on a move of this scale, and a sign the decline has come on comparatively few shares changing hands so far.