Amazon Records Greatest Single-Day Surge in Value With $190 Billion Gain

A day after Facebook owner Meta Platforms suffered the deepest loss of stock market value in history for a US company, Amazon logged the greatest ever one-day increase in value.

Shares of the online retail and cloud computing giant surged 13.5 percent on Friday following its blowout quarterly report, expanding its market capitalisation by around $190 billion (roughly Rs. 14,18,200 crore) by the end of trading.

That beat Apple's record $181 billion (roughly Rs. 13,51,000 crore) one-day gain in stock market value on January 28 following the iPhone maker's own blockbuster quarterly report, according to Refinitiv data.

Amazon is now valued at about $1.6 trillion (roughly Rs. 1,41,82060 crore). With Meta Platforms' stock slipping 0.3 percent on Friday, its value stood at about $660 billion (roughly Rs. 49,26,400 crore).

Amazon's shares jumped after the company reported better-than-expected profits late on Thursday and said it was hiking the price of its annual US Prime subscriptions by 17 percent.

Amazon's surge comes a day after Meta Platforms' stock market value plunged more than $200 billion (roughly Rs. 14,92,800 crore) in the biggest single-day loss for a US company after the social media giant issued a dismal forecast.

"After fighting the post-lockdown blues in 2021, we believe Amazon's fortunes have the potential to improve as 2022 unfolds," Monness Crespi Hardt analyst Brian White wrote in a research note. "Amazon is uniquely positioned to exit this crisis as one of the biggest beneficiaries of accelerated digital transformation."

Retail investors appeared to use Amazon's rally to take profits. Data on Fidelity's website showed Amazon was the most traded stock among its customers on Friday, with sell orders outnumbering buy orders by more than two to one.

The size of the increase in Amazon's value eclipsed the market capitalisations of companies including AT&T, Morgan Stanley, and Netflix.

Apple, Microsoft, and Google owner Alphabet remain Wall Street's most valuable companies, with market capitalisations of $2.8 trillion (roughly Rs. 2,09,00000 crore), $2.3 trillion (roughly Rs. 1,71,67800 crore), and $1.9 trillion (roughly Rs. 1,41,82100 crore), respectively, according to Refinitiv.

Amazon's stock price remains down around 15 percent from its record high close of $3,731.41 (roughly Rs. 2,78,500) in July.

© Thomson Reuters 2022