Pchem's fizzling debut

Pchem's listing today has been anticipated with bated breath  as it has been touted as  the largest IPO currently in South East Asia. Of course another stronger and more personal reason for my bated breath is the fact that my IPO application was successful, yes, the whole lot of it!

Despite the positive write-up on the listing and the main point it being supported by the Malaysian petroleum giant, Petronas, I have some misgivings about its short-term potential unlike MHB which achieved a much larger premium on its first day of listing. Pchem's opening price was 5.71, at 10% premium but by 10am it was already going downhill as more shares were being offloaded as predicted by some analysts. A couple of blogs I visited were not really upbeat about the stock and it was reported that the IPO was oversubscribed by 21 times but its first day performance shows otherwise.

A few factors could have contributed to this early waning sentiment. Firstly the general Asian markets today are down according to WSJ, the market players in America are in holiday mood as they just celebrated their Thanksgiving on  Thursday 25 Nov , the flaring-up of the Korean conflict as well as the plan by China to cool down its hot economy, all appear to have brought  dark cloud over the stock's performance. Say what you like, just like feelgood sentiment, the depressing atmosphere could also be as  infectious resulting in the stock being undervalued albeit the fundamentals are sound.

At the time of writing the price is 5.38 which is below its fair value at 5.60. So folks my Pchem IPO application is successful but looks like I have to wait out for at least one year to reap its benefit? And wait for all those high-spending and near bankrupt European countries to recover once their people learn to generate honest income instead of just spending other peoples' money.

Of course I am not going to wait for one whole year if let's say the stock manages to whet some foreign fund managers' appetite in the days ahead, who knows.

I am still smarting over my failure to grab some MHB's stock but in this game luck does play a role. I can see my friends' faces smirking away.... Hey guys, I am still going for those other forthcoming Petronas related IPOs and then have fun blabbering away like I am doing now.