PPWSA up 48 per cent on first day

By the time Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon closed the first session of the Cambodian Securities Exchange yesterday morning, shares in Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, the Kingdom’s first domestically listed company, were just shy of soaring 50 per cent. Institutional and retail investors traded 487,110 stocks worth $1.13 million. The sharp increase was expected in the newly launched market. With primary market bids 17 times higher than share supply, experts had predicted the stock would hit that mark after Prime Minister Hun Sen opened the exchange at the auspicious time of 9:09am from his office, a block west of the CSX. The premier’s image was broadcast before a flock of Cambodian and Korean officials and businesspeople as he rang in the country’s first, and long-delayed, trading session. “It’s not surprising to see the price climb so high. It’s the first listed shares in a developing country. But that’s not to say there’s no risk of overheating,” Yoo Jae-hoon, the standing commissioner of Korea’s Financial Services Commission, told the Post on the sidelines of the historic launch. ...

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