Myer float bears brunt of bearish sentiment

Kathmandu, which kicked off a $380 million IPO last month, might be forced to rein in their raising projections as equity markets are pulled into a tailspin.

A fall of 4.5% was seen in last week's benchmark share market index whereas another 2.2% was given up yesterday as Mr Brookes, chief executive of Myer and Chairman Howard McDonald and Ms Hawkins, the store ambassador gathered to welcome Myer back on to the public boards as a stand-alone company after an absence of 24 years.

With a discount of 5.4%, Myer stock opened at noon at $3.88 as compared to its original price meant for retail and institutional investors at $4.10 per share. Later on, the shares went down 9.75% and traded as low as $3.70 before ending at the $3.75 for the day. Over the period of its first day as a public company, 130 million shares, worth $500.6 million in total changed hands. Myer had a market capitalisation of $2.19 billion at the close.

Myer wasn't the only one with a disappointing performance for the day. At $5.25, David Jones was 2.1% weaker, with a fall of 2.3%, Harvey Norman was at $3.90 and a slip of 2.4%, JB Hi-Fi was at $20.30.

Nevertheless, Mr Brookes was positive that the market will have a turnaround.