Tanker owners may be facing one bearish forecast after another on destocking woes, but both hire rates and stocks are showing there's at least a little life left.
The 10 tanker stocks under coverage of investment bank Jefferies all recorded gains last week with the average up 6%.
Overall, 22 of the 30 names under Jefferies' research gained, with the average 3.8%.
"The biggest move in rates across all sub-sectors and asset classes was the 37% increase in average VLCC spot rates. Although we expected rates to strengthen, the 35% to 40% rally was larger than expected" said Jefferies' lead shipping analyst Randy Giveans.
The surge was strong enough to break what had been an inverse connection between share prices and oil prices, Giveans noted, as Brent crude gained 6% on the week.
It was an especially good week for big VLCC player Frontline, whose shares gained every day of the week and finished up 13%.
Ardmore Shipping ended the week up more than 11% even thought there was no clarity around a merger-and-acquisition rumour that sent the share up 18% in one day alone. In public comments, one rumoured pursuer of the Irish product tanker owner, Torm of Denmark, lent no support to the talk.
Diamond S Shipping, the Connecticut-based owner of MRs and suezmaxes, gained more than 9% on the week.
While tankers led the major sectors, the top niche market was LPG, with a 15% gain.
Navigator Gas Holdings was the top shipping gainer on the week with a 26% surge, helped by a bullish earnings call on Friday and the announcement that its ethylene export terminal joint venture is now fully operational, Giveans said.
The other gas sector, LNG, had quite the range of results, with Golar LNG gaining 20% with GasLog Partners dipped 15%. Golar was helped by an earnings beat and an agreement to push out a bond maturity by 18 months, Giveans said. Overall, LNG companies gained 2%.
Dry bulk had both a mixed week for hire rates and for stocks, with an average gain of 1%. Containerships were the only down sector at minus 2%.
