Weekly: Optical Cable drops on high volatility and expanding price range

Optical Cable (OCC.O), NASDAQ’s 5th largest Fiber Optics company by market capitalisation, traded between an intraweek high of US$3.52 and a two-week low of US$3.26. The share price dipped 3.01c (or 0.9%) to US$3.48 in the week ending Friday March 09. Compared with the NASDAQ-100 index which rose 5.3 points (or 0.2%) in the week, this represented a relative price change of -1.1%. Volume: there were 14,708 shares worth US$50,838 traded. The volume was 0.3 times average trading per week of 49,635 shares.Volume weighted price (VWP): the price is at a premium of 3.0% to the 3-month volume weighted average price (VWP) of US$3.38. In the past year the premium has been greater than 3.0% just eight times, suggesting a topish level and cautious buying at the current price. The stock’s fall of 0.9% for the week was in keeping with the trend set by the Fiber Optics sector (rank 7;5 out of 8) which was down 5.3 points or 0.4% to 1,428.7.The stock’s fall went against the trend set by the following index and sector (rank by percentage price change of stock for 1 week;12 months in sector/index in brackets):Total NASDAQ Market (rank 1623;1087 out of 2599) which was up 5.5 points or 0.3% to 1,790.3,NASDAQ-100 index which was up 5.3 points or 0.2% to 2,646.The Fiber Optics company sector is the 70th largest by market capitalisation out of NASDAQ’s 88 sectors. It is made up of 8 publicly listed companies with a combined market capitalisation of US$4.4 billion. The main players in the sector include Finisar, Ciena, Oplink Communications and Alliance Fiber Optic Products. Trailing five weeks: the stock rose ten times (40% of the time), fell nine times (36% of the time), was untraded five times (20% of the time) and was unchanged once (4% of the time). The value of US$1,000 invested five weeks ago is US$1,006 [vs US$1,047 for the NASDAQ-100 index] for a capital gain of US$6.Trailing thirteen weeks: the stock rose thirty one times (50% of the time), fell twenty two times (35% of the time), was untraded eight times (13% of the time) and was unchanged once (2% of the time). The value of US$1,000 invested thirteen weeks ago is US$1,001 [vs US$1,143 for the NASDAQ-100 index], including a capital loss of US$3 and dividend reinvested of US$4.Trailing Two Years: the value of US$1,000 invested two years ago is US$1,150 [vs US$1,398 for the NASDAQ-100 index], including a capital gain of US$137 and dividend reinvested of US$13.