A trader stands by the post that trades Knight Capital on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on August 2.BRENDAN MCDERMID/Reuters
Kinross Gold Corp., like it needs any more publicity, was one of the stocks affected by the Knight Capital Group technology glitch on Wednesday – which set about 140 New York-listed stocks in a crazy jump in the first 45 minutes of trading. Another Canadian stock among them: Goldcorp Inc.
Of course, most of the affected stocks were U.S.-based companies. Initially, the New York Stock Exchange was reviewing unusual trading in 148 stocks, but that list was then narrowed to 140 stocks.
But only stocks that saw price swings of 30 per cent or more had the their activity rewound. There were only six of them, according to the NYSE, including some less-than-household names: China Cord Blood jumped 140 per cent in minutes and E-House (China) Holdings plunged.
As for the Canadian gold stocks, the level of unusual activity wasn't high enough for a restart – and their share prices on Thursday don't appear to have been ruffled by the previous day's action.
Indeed, the only real casualty in all of this is Knight Capital, whose share price fell hard on Wednesday after declined another 63 per cent on Thursday after disclosing that the glitch could cost it as much as $440-million (U.S.).
David Berman