WATER utility Calapan Ventures Inc., the country’s fourth company to go public this year, jumped during its first day of trading, bucking the general downtrend in the market.

Calapan Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of listed Jolliville Holdings Corp., jumped 7.2 percent to P2.68 each on Thursday, after gaining as much as 12 percent earlier in the session. 

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index declined 33.94 points, or 0.8 percent, amid ongoing concerns over the European debt crisis and a disappointing manufacturing report in China.

Calapan Ventures sold 42.16 million shares, or 26 percent of its outstanding capital stock after the offer, at P2.50 each to raise gross proceeds of P105.4 million. Unicapital Inc. was the sole underwriter for the initial public offering.

Proceeds will be partly used to fund the rehabilitation and expansion of its subsidiary Calapan Waterworks Corp. based in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro.

Calapan Ventures’ subsidiaries are Calapan Water and Tabuk Water, through which the company conducts its water-utility businesses; and Kristal Water, which was established to engage in the production, marketing and distribution of tube ice products in Oriental Mindoro.

To date, however, Kristal Water and Tabuk Water are still in pre-operational status, the company said in its prospectus.

Three Philippine companies have gone public this year—building contractor Megawide Construction Corp., supermarket chain Puregold Price Club Inc. and semiconductor manufacturer Cirtek Holdings Philippines Corp.

A fifth company, Touch Solutions Inc., postponed its IPO originally scheduled this week, citing the lack of certain approvals from the Securities and Exchange Commission.