This newly listed stock soared 500% in 3 months - what’s its rocket fuel?

Shares of semiconductor optics company Metaoptics dived as much as 18 per cent on Monday (Dec 8) morning.

The counter opened at S$1.26 on Monday, before falling to S$0.995 at 10.04 am, down by over 20 per cent. It later climbed again to S$1.08 by 10.27 am.

As at 10.51am, shares of Metaoptics hit S$1.16, still down 7.9 per cent and S$0.10, after around 1.7 million securities were transacted.

The profit-taking by investors pales in comparison to the counter’s gains in the past three months since its listing in September. Its all-time high stands at S$1.33, more than 500 per cent up from its IPO price of just S$0.20.

Metaoptics launched its initial public offering at S$0.20 a share, with the company’s shares initially trading at S$0.24 on its Sep 9 debut.

Its steady incline was catapulted by its filing on Nov 17, which noted the semiconductor optics company’s proposed Nasdaq listing.

The US listing would bring MetaOptics closer to important contacts in the space who were “potential key customers,” said the company.

In addition, a fully owned US subsidiary in late October was said to be established by the group, which was said to advance next-generation optical technologies and “strengthen cross-border collaborations” in semiconductor manufacturing, integrated photonics and nanophotonics.

The news of MetaOptics’ planned listing on the Nasdaq came right before the announcement on Nov 29 of SGX-Nasdaq dual listing, set to debut in 2026.

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The semiconductor optics group on Dec 1 also proposed to raise S$4.85 million via a share placement. A bourse filing showed that 6,685,028 new ordinary shares at S$0.7255 per placement share were on offer.

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