The Covid-19 valuation derby

Last week Evaluate Vantage looked at the biggest one-day share price moves caused by Covid-19-related activities. An examination of the biggest one-day gainers in terms of market cap, using EvaluatePharma’s EventAnalyzer, reveals a similarly startling picture. Some of these gigantic moves occurred for sensible reasons: it is hard to argue with the importance of the superb pivotal trial data on Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, for instance. Others, such as Gilead’s decision to start trials of remdesivir resulting in a $5.8bn valuation bump, and Regeneron adding $4.2bn simply because its antibody doublet was used to treat a hospitalised Donald Trump, are rather more preposterous. It is notable that the market cap of these last two companies subsequently dropped by $14bn apiece. It should also be mentioned that two of the movers in the table below, Abcellera and Curevac, recorded much bigger one-day market cap rises – of $10.3bn and $6.6bn respectively – on their first days as public companies. While these gains cannot be specifically attributed to Covid-19, enthusiasm for companies active in this space will certainly have played a part.