I have noticed similar trends before, when almost all the altcoins suddenly dropped/rose in value. I speculate that there may be people (its like a group with many people) who decide to 'pump' the coin by buying it in a large volume to raise its value then sell it.
But of course it may be directly linked to the price of Bitcoin, when the Bitcoin prices drop, you can sell your altcoins, and when Bitcoin price rises again, you buy back the altcoin and now you have more altcoins than before.
Just a guess.
Good question though, and I believe too that the market may be manipulated.