GM shares soar after landmark IPO

Shares of automaker General Motors (GM) opened at $35 in its first trading day on the NYSE after recovering from a government funded bailout. The opening price was an increase of 2 percent from its IPO price of $33.

Shares climbed as high as 9 percent in the early morning trade on Thursday to trade at $35.99 amid heavy trading volume at over 610 million shares.

The stock was up $2.21, or 6 percent, at $35.20 at 10 AM Eastern Time.

After being in the sidelines for more than two years following the bankruptcy, GM has found that the appetite for its equity papers are in great demand and therefore decided to increase its public offering by almost 31 percent.

Though the company's public offering has been in the air for quite some, the increased offering size comes on the heels of the company reporting a profit of $2 billion, its third consecutive quarter registering solid profit, on the back of strong demand for its high margin trucks.

Yesterday, GM priced its Initial Public Offering (IPO) at $33 apiece, the high end of its $32 to $33 range. GM will raise $20.1 billion from IPO by selling 478 million common shares and offering up to $4.6 billion worth of preferred shares at $50 each, making it one of the largest IPO in the U.S. history. Earlier, credit card company Visa raised $19.7 billion from IPO in 2008.

Earlier, Detroit-based GM had planned to sell 365 million common shares for $26 to $29 each and preferred shares worth $3 billion.

The company's underwriters have the option to buy up to 71.7 million shares, expanding the size of the offering to about 550 million shares.

If the underwriters exercised their over-allotment options, GM could raise $23.1 billion and would make it the world's largest IPO. As of now, Agricultural Bank of China's $22.1 billion debut on the Hong Kong and Shanghai markets is the world's largest IPO.

Other big IPOs include Industrial & Commercial Bank of China's $21.9 billion stock sale in 2006 and Japan's NTT Mobile Communications Network raised $18.4 billion in 1998.