Morgan Stanley doubles up
October 17, 2008 by Tisa Silver
Filed under Finance
Wow, what a difference a week makes.
Last Friday, October 10th, shares of Morgan Stanley closed at $9.68. Today, October 17th, shares of Morgan Stanley closed at $19.24. That equates to just under a 100 percent return in one week.
This week has been a crazy week and with all of it’s flip-flopping, the Dow managed to end the week in positive territory. So, in a week which saw the Dow gain 5 percent, what about this week pushed Morgan Stanley to double up? Well, when you zoom in on Morgan Stanley, it wasn’t the week that made the difference, it was just one day.
On Monday, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group closed a $9 billion deal for a 21 percent ownership stake in Morgan Stanley. Mitsubishi, the largest financial group in Japan, purchased preferred stock (the vast majority of which is convertible).
News of this deal hit before the market opened on Monday, causing Morgan Stanley’s shares to open almost $6 higher than the previous Friday’s $9.68 closing price. The day’s trading range was pretty wide: $12.66 – $19.06.
Even with the good news on 10/13, this one week wonder has to be put into perspective. Considering that shares of Morgan Stanley closed at $65.81 one year ago today, perhaps I should have started this post with “Yikes! What a difference a year makes.”
Take a look at this chart: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=1y&s=MS&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=&c=%5EGSPC
