SpaceX Shares Surge Nearly 20% on First Trading Day, Retail Investors Play Key Role

(Central News Agency, New York, 15th -综合外电) SpaceX, the U.S. aerospace company, saw its stock price surge nearly 20% on its first day of trading, with experts attributing part of the rally to strong retail investor demand. However, competition to participate in this massive initial public offering (IPO) was intense, prompting some investors to simply buy shares directly in the open market.

According to Reuters, SpaceX and its IPO underwriters decided from the outset to reserve up to 30% of shares for retail investors. In other words, generating interest and securing orders from individual investors became crucial.

Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management in Boston, said this level of retail allocation is unprecedented in his decades of experience on Wall Street, calling SpaceX "the newest and shiniest target" for retail investors entering the market today.

On its debut trading day on the 12th, SpaceX shares closed up over 19%. Hogan noted that retail buying was one of the key drivers behind this surge.

Retail investors bought a net $453 million (approximately NT$14.3 billion) worth of SpaceX stock on that day, accounting for about 4% of all retail trading volume in U.S. equities—3.5 times the amount traded in Nvidia, the second-highest ranked stock.

Vanda Research, a U.S. market analytics firm that tracks retail investor behavior, reported that SpaceX quickly became the second most actively bought stock by retail investors within 20 minutes of market open, rising to the top spot by afternoon, far outpacing all other contenders.

However, securing IPO allocations proved highly competitive. Retail investors closely monitored their email inboxes and brokerage accounts to see how many shares they would receive. Some investors opted instead to buy directly in the open market on the first day of trading.

For example, Joseph Gutheinz, a retired NASA investigator now working as a practicing lawyer, said he never considered applying for IPO shares and instead bought directly. On that day, he purchased $100,000 (approximately NT$3.15 million) worth of SpaceX stock at $161 per share.

Gutheinz said he was thrilled to secure such a large position: "It's a fantastic investment. Whether I win or lose, I'm proud to be part of it."

SoFi, one of the retail brokers participating in the IPO, said in a statement that SpaceX was the largest and most participated IPO on its platform to date, and that all eligible investors received allocations. (Compiled by: Zhang Zhengqian) 1150615