‘Record January’ tweet causes share price rise

Online estate agents Purplebricks has been forced to issue two statements to the stock market after a tweet appeared to cause its share price to spike.

A tweet sent at 9.30am on Friday from Purplebricks’ official account said “January has been a record-breaking month for valuations & instructions”, and within an hour its share price had risen 5%.

Its shares had been rising in value since the markets opened last Monday, gaining 25% by Thursday from its Monday opening price of 160p, raising its market value to nearly £500m.

On Friday, the company issued a statement to the stock market saying it “notes the recent strong increase in the share price and confirms that it is not aware of any reason for the movement. Whilst the company has had a good start to the calendar year, the board’s expectations remain unchanged.”

Friday afternoon’s statement took some of the heat out of its shares, as the price dropped 7% in the final hour’s trading.

This morning it has reiterated that the company has has “a good start to the calendar year” but that its expectations remain unchanged.

It said: “The board confirms that, as expected with the start to the calendar year, the company has seen record monthly valuations and instructions activity in January (as mentioned in a tweet by the company on 26 January). 

“As expectations are for trading to show year-on-year instruction growth, the record level of valuations and instructions in January is in line with such expectations.”