Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 23): Icon Offshore Bhd fell as much as 7.5 sen or 10% as shareholders continued to sell shares of the marine vessel provider, following expiry of the company's initial public offering (IPO) lock-up or moratorium period.

 
The moratorium period expiry means major shareholders are no longer restricted from selling Icon shares following its listing. Icon was listed on Bursa Malaysia on June 25 this year under an IPO involving the sale of 510.77 million shares at RM1.85 each.

Today, Icon fell to a low of 71 sen before reducing losses. At 12.30pm, the stock settled at 74.5 sen with some 42 million shares done.

The stock was the second most active entity across the exchange. For comparison, the FBM KLCI rose 6.46 points or 0.4%.

Icon shares had extended losses today after plunging 19 sen or 19% to close at 78.5 sen yesterday.

Icon, which provides vessels support services to the oil and gas (O&G) sector, has been a closely watched stock amid weaker crude oil prices.

Today, Goh Kay Chong, a senior remisier at SJ Securities Sdn Bhd said the selldown in Icon shares was driven by institutional investors having jitters over weaker outlook of the O&G environment.

Crude oil prices had fallen to some US$56 (RM196) a barrel today from about US$100 early this year on oversupply concerns. Lower crude oil prices have led to expectation that O&G support services providers like Icon would get fewer projects as oil companies cut spending.

“However, the stock (Icon) is likely to rebound when it falls to a point where institutional investors, who are able to withstand stronger shocks to stock prices, start buying Icon shares,” he told theedgemarkets.com.

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