XMH Holdings (M9F.SG) trades at $0.260, +4.0% from its IPO price of $0.250 with 41 million shares traded, in a fairly muted debut compared with the lofty gains seen for new listings back in October, when the STI was in the midst of a sharp uptrend and investor appetite was ripe for new names. 

With the STI down 0.1% year-to-date, and near term market direction uncertain, upcoming new listings may face similar lacklustre starts, such as Malaysia Smelting, which is to debut Friday after offering 25 million new shares.

In fact, Thai rubber processing firm Sri Trang (STA.TH) may fare badly regardless of market mood, if and when it lists Friday, on confusion over it’s contradictory press releases today. The firm earlier said it had canceled its planned Singapore share offering because of unfavorable market conditions, before it then said it wished to withdraw the statement and was still in the process of determining the final offering price.