Fund managers say Endeavour Group, which owns the big Dan Murphy’s and BWS liquor chains and 293 hotels with 12,364 poker machines, will always trade with a discount built into its valuation compared with Woolworths, because a growing number of investors will steer clear due to ethical concerns.

Endeavour Group, which de-merged from Woolworths, traded on the ASX for the first time as a stand-alone entity from noon on Thursday and hit the boards at $6.60, before oscillating between $5.77 to $6.60 for the day. It closed at $6.02, giving the company a sharemarket capitalisation of $10.8 billion as 14.6 million shares changed hands.