Score check: ASX BNPL sector gets in the Afterpay slipstream

Zip Co (ASX:Z1P) has led the morning gains in Australia’s listed BNPL sector, following the marquee acquisition announcement by Afterpay (ASX:APT).

The deal news provided a jolt for other stocks in the space, with steady gains across the board.

Here’s the ASX BNPL state of play at 11am EST, after one hour of trade:

CODE	COMPANY	PRICE ($)	INTRADAY RETURN %	MARKET CAP
APT	Afterpay	119.51	23.6%	$27,994,999,391
Z1P	Zip Co Ltd	7.22	8.7%	$3,732,579,707
SZL	Sezzle Inc	7.4	2.6%	$747,736,367
SPT	Splitit	0.495	7.6%	$214,453,483
OPY	Openpay Group	1.175	4.0%	$119,699,829
HUM	Humm Group	0.965	3.2%	$463,075,877
LBY	Laybuy Group	0.445	3.5%	$109,418,746
ZBT	Zebit Inc.	0.99	0.0%	$93,645,531
PYR	Payright Limited	0.48	5.5%	$31,020,343
IOU	Ioupay Limited	0.215	7.5%	$110,282,413

ASX BNPL — around the grounds

Investors sent APT shares straight back to the ~$120 level after they closed last week at $96.66 — a possible indicator that the market thinks Square Inc’s offer of $126.21 per share has a good chance of getting over the line.

Zip Co, which as of Friday was the most shorted stock on the ASX, jumped out of the blocks with a gain of more than 10% before easing back slightly.

Last month, the company announced that Bank of America had upped its stake in the business — a move which increased its voting interest in Zip Co to 7.45%.

BNPL platform Splitit (ASX:SPT) also posted a morning gain of more than 8%.

However, at this morning’s trading price of 50c, the stock is still well off its February high of $1.50 before co-founder Alon Feit sold 13,300,000 shares on-market at $1.47, for a nominal return of $19,551,000.

Most of the BNPL cohort reported steady gains of between 3-5%.

Among them was OpenPay (ASX:OPY), which ran cold over the past two weeks with an RSI below 30 in the lead-up to the release of its 4C filing last week.

Like Afterpay and Zip Co, the company has flagged its North American ambitions with the pending launch of Opy USA in October.

US-based BNPL platform Sezzle (ASX:SZL) edged higher by 1-2%, after sharp falls on Friday when the company released its quarterly update and a material chunk of its publicly-traded shares came out of their two-year escrow period.

Another company which found some buyers in morning trade was IOUpay (ASX:IOU), which is looking to build out a BNPL offering in core south-east Asian markets. IOU shares rose by 7.5% in morning trade to 21.5c.