As far as Bay Street could tell, it was just another day for Aimia Inc. (TSX: AIM) with no news coming from the company to kick off the new week. Shares ended 2017 in a nice uptrend at $3.74, but have been absolutely pummeled so far in 2018, including hitting $1.49 on Thursday, their lowest level since last August.
The bloodbath started early in February when the marketing and loyalty analytics company sold its Nectar loyalty program and related assets to U.K. supermarket group J Sainsbury plc for about $105 million.
Perhaps playing into the technical phenomenon of support, the uptrend from August through January, which peaked at $4.33 before the cratering began, started right about $1.50. What got the Montreal-based Aeroplan owner rolling on Monday is anyone’s guess, but the company added about $60 million to its market capitalization today to over $304 million by gaining 25.0%, or 40 cents, to close the day at $2.00.
Trading volume Monday was 4.2 million, compared to its 10-day average volume of 721,500 and 90-day volume of 1.1 million, according to Yahoo Finance.
The palindrome-named outfit hasn’t released news in over a month, last disclosing financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2017 on Valentine’s Day. Total revenue for the quarter was $398.6 million, down from $440.1 million in the year prior quarter. Net loss swelled to $214.7 million from $57.2 million, although inflated by an impairment charge of $180.5 million related to the Nectar program.
In a day where the Dow Jones Industrial Average and TSX Composite shed triple digits, Aimia was one of the best performing stocks in Canada, trailing only companies like Klondex (TSX: KDX)(NYSE American: KLDX), who scored a gain of nearly 60% on an agreement to be acquired by Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL).
Sure can make one wonder what Tuesday will have in store.
