By Caroline Valetkevitch and Susan Heavey

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group rose on Friday after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he had no plans to sell his shares in the company, which owns Truth social media platform.

In an article on Truth Social, Trump dismissed what he described as rumors that he was considering selling shares a day after the stock fell.

“There are false, untrue and possibly illegal rumors and/or statements, perhaps made by market manipulators or short sellers, that I am interested in selling shares of Truth,” wrote Trump.

“THESE RUMORS OR STATEMENTS ARE FALSE. I HAVE NO INTENTION TO SELL!” Trump added.

The company’s shares closed up 15.2% on Friday at $31.91 and hit a high of $33.03.

The stock was briefly halted due to volatility after Trump’s comments.

The company’s shares fell on Thursday as speculative bets on Trump winning a second four-year term lost steam a day after his victory over Democrat Kamala Harris. The stock rose 5.9% on Wednesday following Election Day on Tuesday.

While Trump and Vice President Harris were nearly tied in most opinion polls conducted before the election, online betting markets favored the former president more, prompting investors to invest in stocks that they saw as more likely to benefit or be pressured under his leadership.

This led to a roughly 200% rise in Trump Media shares in the six weeks leading up to the election.

Trump previously said in September that he would not sell his shares in the company or leave the social media platform he founded.

Trump owns nearly 115 million shares and owns about 53% of Trump Media. As of Friday’s stock price, his stake in the company was worth about $3.7 billion, while its total market capitalization was about $7 billion.

The stock’s 30-day implied volatility – an options-based measure of how much swings short-term traders expect – has retreated from a record high of 300% reached just before the election, but remains very high at approximately 200%. according to trade alert data.

Even though the presidential election is over, options traders see the stock moving as much as 25% over the next week, according to LSEG options data.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Lance Tupper in New York; editing by Rami Ayyub and Jonathan Oatis)