High volumes of Sembcorp Marine shares changed hands on their first day of ex-rights trading, two days after shareholders gave the green light for the firm and its parent Sembcorp Industries to proceed with their demerger.

SembMarine shares opened at 24 cents yesterday, 31.4 per cent or 11 cents lower than Wednesday's close.

It was trading at 24.5 cents as at 11.39am, up two cents or about 8.9 per cent from the theoretical ex-rights price of 22.5 cents calculated based on the stock's closing price on Wednesday.

The counter closed down 30 per cent at 24.5 cents.

About 36.4 million shares changed hands, making SembMarine among the top 10 most actively traded on the Singapore bourse yesterday.

On Wednesday, the stock's last day of cum-rights trading, its price had risen one cent, or 2.9 per cent, to finish at 35 cents.

Under SembMarine's $2.1 billion renounceable rights issue, five rights shares will be issued for every one existing SembMarine share at 20 cents per rights share. The record date for the rights issue is today at 5pm.

Meanwhile, Sembcorp enjoyed mild gains yesterday, rising 1.57 per cent to finish the day at $1.94 on about 13.1 million shares traded.

On Tuesday, SembMarine and Sembcorp shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the recapitalisation and demerger, and both stocks ended the day lower.

THE BUSINESS TIMES