Yandex Surges to Six-Week High as Groupon Lifts Internet Stocks
By Leon Lazaroff and Ksenia Galouchko - Nov 3, 2011 4:19 PM CT
bloomberg.com
Yandex NV, operator of Russia’s most popular Internet search engine, surged to a six-week high as Groupon Inc.’s impending initial public offering boosted shares of online companies, and the European Central Bank cut rates.
Yandex jumped 9.9 percent to $28.62, its highest price since Sept. 19, leading gains on the Bloomberg Russia-US 14 Index of Russian companies traded in New York. The index added 2.6 percent to rise to 100.95.
Yandex benefitted from investor demand to participate in the initial public offering of Groupon, the online-coupon provider. Groupon stopped taking orders for its IPO a day earlier than planned because of demand for the shares, two people familiar with the sale told Bloomberg News.
“If Groupon does well tomorrow, it will reflect well on Yandex and the entire Internet space,” Yan Gloukhovski, a trader at Alforma Capital Markets, the New York branch of Russia’s Alfa Bank, said in a phone interview. “A bunch of Internet companies are doing well as a result.”
Sina Corp., owner of the Twitter-like Weibo service in China, gained 2.8 percent to $82.26, and Baidu Inc., China’s biggest Internet company by market value, advanced 2.1 percent to $143.50.
ECB officials unanimously lowered the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent. The rate cut may help small businesses that advertise on Yandex, Gloukhovski said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Leon Lazaroff in New York llazaroff@bloomberg.net; Ksenia Galouchko in New York at kgalouchko1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos in New York at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net |
