Shares of Donald Trump’s social media company jumped more than 30 per cent in the first day of trading on the Nasdaq, boosting the value of Trump’s large holdings in the company as well as the smaller stakes of fans who purchased shares as a show of support for the former president.
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp merged with a company called Digital World Acquisition Corp. Trump Media, which runs the social media platform Truth Social, has now taken Digital World’s place on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Before trading began, Trump Media had a market value of about US$6.8 billion, a figure that will rise significantly if the gains in the shares hold. The shares are trading under the ticker symbol “DJT”. Trump holds a nearly 60 per cent ownership stake in the company. From the start of trading, the shares rose 34 per cent to US$67.
The stock created such a frenzy that Nasdaq briefly halted its trading just two minutes after it began for the day.
Many of Trump Media’s investors are small-time investors either trying to support Trump or aiming to cash in on the mania, instead of big institutional and professional investors. Those shareholders helped the stock of Digital World more than double this year in anticipation of the merger going through.
