Communications stocks slide for week, with Sea, WPP leading decliners (NASDAQ:PARA)

Communications Services stocks slid as a group this week, outpacing the broader market’s decline on a week dominated by developments in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The sector’s Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLC) fell 3% from last week, while broader market indexes (SPY) declined just 1.3%.

No stock in Communications fared worse than Sea Limited (NYSE:SE), which dropped more than 29% for the period – and after a Monday gain, spent the first four days of March in a tailspin. The company’s earnings Tuesday showed it finally beating EPS expectations, but issuing cautious guidance on gaming as its Garena Free Fire was restricted in India.

Ad giant WPP was second-worst, with a 15.5% decline that continued its drop from last week post-earnings.

Roblox (NYSE:RBLX) can’t catch a break, either: Its 15.5% decline for the week made for the third week in a row that the stock was among the top five losers in large-cap names. Those shares had already dropped more than 25% in the past month, and they’re down 56.2% for 2022 so far.

On the winners side, Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) topped all stocks, up 15.3% for the week after marking gains Monday through Thursday.

Otherwise, though, a flight to safety that usually benefits telecoms landed heavily on Canadian names: Three of the top five large-cap gainers for the week came from that small grouping. Bell name BCE rose 5.8% for the week; Rogers Communications (NYSE:RCI) rose 3.5% (and maintained a takeover of Shaw Communications (NYSE:SJR)) was on track despite some government pushback on spectrum holdings; and Telus (NYSE:TU) rose 3.5% for the period.

The top five gainers over the past five sessions among large-cap Communications Services stocks and larger ($10B market cap or more):

• Paramount Global (PARA), +15.3%;
• BCE (NYSE:BCE), +5.8%;
• Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN), +4.6%;
• Rogers Communications (RCI), +3.5%;
• Telus (TU), +3.5%.

The top five decliners over the past five sessions among large-cap Communications Services stocks and larger ($10B market cap or more):

• Sea Limited (SE), -29.1%;
• WPP (NYSE:WPP), -15.5%;
• Roblox (RBLX), -15.5%;
• Snap (NYSE:SNAP), -15.5%;
• Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH), -14.7%.