Baltic Index a Rising Tide for Dry Bulk Shippers

The dry bulk shipping sector jumped on Tuesday after an industry pricing index showed its first gain in several days.

The Baltic Dry Index is the most popular measure of dry bulk shipping cost, and as such is used as a determinant of the sector’s profit margins. The index is up today for the first time in several days, spiking by 4%. Dry bulk shipping stocks are flying on the news, some by over 10%.

As a whole tickerspy’s Dry Bulk Shipping Stocks Index is ahead by 4.4%. It is now trailing the S&P 500 by -12.6%.

Excel Maritime (EXM) and Eagle Bulk Shipping (EGLE) are leading the rally with respective gains of 15% and 10%. Excel now leads the sector on a five-day basis, up by 20%.

Japan’s largest iron-ore shipping company, Mitsui (MITSY) is also benefiting from the optimism of Mitsubishi UFJ analyst Ryota Himeno. According to Bloomberg, Himeno expects the company’s pretax profit to be 82.9 billion yen in the year ended March, better than the Mitsui’s previous 80 billion yen forecast.

Dryships (DRYS) and Genco Shipping (GNK) are up by 7% and 9% respectively.

Diana Shipping (DSX), Oceanfreight (OCNF), Euroseas (ESEA) and Navios Maritime Holdings (NM) are all up by more than 4%.

Kirby Corporation (KEX), a barge operator, is a laggard today, moving up only fractionally. AS Steamship (TRMD) is the worst performer over the last week, down by -9%.

As of this writing the Dry Bulk Shipping Stocks Index is one of the 15 worst performing tickerspy Indexes over the last month, down by -17.5%.

Investors can follow the Dry Bulk Shipping Stocks Index and view related performance charts and metrics at tickerspy.com.

Tags: DRYS, DSX, EGLE, ESEA, EXM, GNK, KEX, MITSY, NM, OCNF, TRMD