Amazon achieved the greatest ever one-day increase in worth the day after Facebook owner Meta Platforms went through its largest-ever one-day loss of stock market value for any American firm.

Following its spectacular quarterly report, shares of the online retail and cloud computing behemoth soared 13.5 per cent on Friday, which boosted its market valuation by nearly $190 billion by the close of trade.

According to Refinitiv statistics, this surpassed Apple Inc.’s record $181 billion one-day rise in stock market value on Jan. 28 following the iPhone maker’s own blockbuster quarterly report.

Amazon is currently worth roughly $1.6 trillion. On Friday, Meta Platforms’ stock fell 0.3 per cent, putting its market capitalization at $660 billion.

Amazon’s stock soared after the firm posted better-than-expected profits late Thursday and announced a 17 per cent increase in the price of its annual US Prime subscriptions.

Amazon’s rise came just one day after Meta Platforms’ stock market value plummeted by more than $200 billion, the worst single-day loss for a US company after the social network behemoth published a bleak prognosis.

“After fighting the post-lockdown blues in 2021, we believe Amazon’s fortunes have the potential to improve as 2022 unfolds,” Monness Crespi Hardt analyst Brian White wrote in a research note. “Amazon is uniquely positioned to exit this crisis as one of the biggest beneficiaries of accelerated digital transformation.”

Retail investors looked to win from Amazon’s surge. On Friday, according to data on Fidelity’s website, Amazon was the most actively traded stock among its users, with sell orders outnumbering buy orders by more than two to one.

Amazon’s gain in value dwarfed the market capitalizations of AT&T Inc, Morgan Stanley, and Netflix Inc.

According to Refinitiv, Apple, Microsoft Corp, and Google owner Alphabet Inc are the most valuable firms on Wall Street, with market capitalizations of $2.8 trillion, $2.3 trillion, and $1.9 trillion, respectively.

The stock price of Amazon is still down roughly 15% from its record high close of $3,731.41 in July.

(Adapted from EconomicTimes.com)