Hot stock: Catalist debutant GS Holdings up 6% despite market rout

GS Holdings, which started trading on Monday, held up with decent gains in the morning despite a global equities rout as oil prices slumped to the lowest since 2003 in Asian trading.

At 10.12am, GS Holding was trading at 26.5 cents, up 6 per cent from its placement price of 25 cents. It was not heavily traded however, with 1.79 million shares changing hands.

The strong debut for the operator of centralised dishwashing facilities mirrors the performance on the Catalist of environment and technological solutions provider Eindec Corporation Ltd, which also got off to a positive start last Friday closing 21.4 per cent higher than its IPO price. Some 35.8 million new shares of Eindec were similarly placed out to private investors at 21 cents apiece without a retail tranche.

A dealer with a local brokerage noted that these recent IPOs on the Catalist have been listed through private placements.

"They are playing on stronger hands with anchor placees, so there is no immediate selling pressure on IPO day. These stocks that come out to list in this bad market need strong placees who will not dump the shares on the first day," he said.

"There has to be an invisible hand to support the price, otherwise, it won't hold up in this market."