Shares of Exela Technologies Inc. XELA, +1.82% rose 4.9% in very active afternoon trading Friday, but pared earlier intraday gains of as much as 22.7%, after the business process automation company said NYSE Arca launched options trading in its stock. Trading volume swelled to 133.7 million shares, already well above the full-day average of about 110.2 million shares over the past 30 days, according to FactSet. Options have started trading on Friday, with an implied volatility of 232.5% on $5.00 strike call options expiring Aug. 20. The stock, in which the latest exchange data showed that short interest was about 15% of the public float, has enjoyed meme-like status in recent weeks, skyrocketing 195% from June 28 through July 13, before pulling back 25% since then. The stock is still up 178% year to date, while the S&P 500 SPX, -0.37% has advanced 15.9%. Volume reached a record 514.2 million shares on July 13, and topped 400 million shares twice in late June. That compares with the average daily volume for all of 2020 of 2.2 million shares.
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