KUALA LUMPUR (July 22): Ocean Vantage Holdings Bhd saw strong buying interest upon being listed on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia today to rise by as much as 111.54% to 55 sen compared with its issue price of 26 sen.

The Sarawak-based energy firm closed the day at 53 sen, for a first-day gain of 27 sen or 103.85%. This gives the company a market capitalisation of RM217.83 million.

Some 216.91 million shares changed hands, making Ocean Vantage the seventh most actively traded stock on Bursa Malaysia.

The oil and gas (O&G) stock's upward momentum came on the back of crude oil prices hitting a four-month high yesterday, following a report on energy portal oilprice.com that the promise of major stimulus packages in the European Union and the US counterbalanced an increase in Covid-19 cases.

Ocean Vantage's initial public offering, which raised RM21.4 million in proceeds, involved a public issue of 82.2 million new shares at an issue price of 26 sen per share, representing 20% of the group's enlarged issued share capital.

A total of 5,509 applications for 347.3 million shares with a value of RM90.3 million were received from the Malaysian public for the 20.55 million shares on offer to them, representing an oversubscription rate of 15.9 times.

Ocean Vantage provides integrated support services for both the upstream and downstream segments of the O&G industry.

Its services include engineering, procurement and construction and project management, supply of manpower, supply of materials, tools and equipment as well as provision of drilling rig charter service.

This story has been updated at market close.