The Gowex fiasco has cast a long shadow on companies listed on Spain's Alternative Stock Market (known as the GAM), which have decreased in value over the past week. Gowex shares started to plummet after Gotham released a negative report, and meanwhile other MAB firms have lost 25% of their market capitalization in five trading sessions. Total market value fell from 1.5 billion euros to 1.15 billion euros.
On Sunday Gowex confirmed that they had tampered with company accounts, and this had a negative impact on other MAB companies. "Without a doubt, this hurts the MAB's reputation and the general markets in Spain," said Self Bank analyst Felipe López-Gálvez. During Monday's trading, all MAB companies except for Secuoya went into the red, losing 14% of their market cap compared to Friday.
"What happened makes MAB companies a whole lot less attractive and ups the risk for potential investors in this market. A lot of companies on the MAB want to start trading on the Mercado Continuo, which they think is more secure, in order to sidestep the stigma that is surrounding the MAB right now," said Daniel Pingarrón, a market strategist from IG.
Yesterday's trading session was characterized by high volatility, nearly half of them downward shifts. Companies such as Ibercom, Ebioss, Bionaturis and Eurona saw volatility as traders tried to settle on a price. The BME had to widen the price spread in some cases.
The trading session slammed many companies. Bionaturis, Eurona and Carbures were hit hard, seeing drops as great as 20%. The pharmaceutical company hit its lowest point since last January and closed the day at 7 euros. Eurona and Carbures have not been this low since February, and they dropped to 2.5 euros and 22.14 euros per share, respectively.
In five trading sessions these companies have lost more than 30% of their market cap. Eurona shaved 39% since the beginning of the month. Bionaturis fell 36% and Carbures 34.6%. In only five days, the company specializing in carbon fiber went from 644 million euros to 422 million euros.
The Exceptions
Still, market cap has stopped falling for two companies. First, there is Facephi, a technology company focused on facial recognition software that went public on the MAB in March by selling 12.2 million euros in stock, more than doubling its market cap in just four days. The stock's current value is around 30 million euros.
Second, there is Secuoya, which grew 2% yesterday and is the only company to not lose any value over the past five days while growing 18% and closing at around 33 million euros in market cap compared to 28 million last Tuesday.
