As the global markets continue to grapple with the effect of deadly coronavirus, investor appetite is shifting towards stocks of companies that are perceived to benefit from the growing number of people around the world working from home and social distancing.
Shares of Zoom Communications, a video conferencing company gained 7.19percent on Wednesday as investors continued to bet that the teleconferencing company would be one of the rare winners from the coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, its shares ballooned 22%percent, while, trading almost twice its daily average volume, in their biggest one-day percentage gain since June 2019.
The stock is up more than 100percent since the beginning of the year, with download more than doubled this year, and recent gains coming on signs of higher usage.
Last week, Kelly Steckelberg, Zoom’s chief financial officer said it is has bolstered its network capacity in order to manage unprecedented demand. The surge comes as more and more people work from home or use the video-conferencing software to keep in touch rather than meet in person.
Zoom went public on April 18 2019. Since, it has skyrocketed from its $36 initial offering price to $146 on Wednesday.
Another stock that seems to be on a steroid is Slack technology, a collaborative communications software company which has reported a massive surge in downloads and paid subscription.
The share has gained 17.17percent since the beginning of the year. Shares of the company, however plummeted as much as 20percent on Friday, its biggest intraday loss and lowest level since the company’s June 2019 trading debut following a lower than expected full-year forecast.
Microsoft which has seen soaring use of its Teams software, which competes with Slack. Shares gained 9percent on Tuesday, although it has shed 6.09percent year to date.
According to Microsoft, Teams has surpassed 44 million daily active users, more than double the 20 million it reported in November 2019, with users generating over 900 million meeting and calling minutes on Teams each day this week. The jump in users comes as Microsoft and Slack continue to battle for market share in the office collaboration market
Undoubtedly, the recent surge in usage is the result of the spread of coronavirus, as millions of people have been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
