Heavy Put Buying Detected In XL Capital

According to an article on TheStreet.com by Pete Natarajan, the global insurance and reinsurance company XL Capital XL is facing a downturn of late. The negative trend continued yesterday with bears accelerating the fall. Heavy put buying was detected in XL by OptionMonster's tracking system. For the last three sessions, the stock has been under its 200-day moving average. While the June 15 contracts traded roughly 13,000 times within the price range of $0.35 to $0.45, the June 17 contacts were trading for $0.90-$1.10. The put/call ratio was extremely bearish at 28 to 1. Total options volume was more than triple the average. XL had reported better-than-expected earnings for the last quarter and its shares had soared on May 12 after the company announced that it would retain its position in the S&P 500. However, the stock has been falling continuously. XL is ‘one of those really depressed financials’ that is currently up 600% since its March 2009 lows. Given the large amount of gains and the shares hovering close to its highs, the bears might feel the need to push it lower. The reinsurance stock has been declining along with other financial stocks and has dropped 15% over the past month. It tumbled 2.13% to $17 yesterday. Read more from Benzinga's Company news.