Facebook goes public, shares up in early trading

Investing.com - The iconic social network Facebook went public Friday, trading at USD43.00 per share.

The share was initially priced at USD38 a share as part of the initial public offering that valued the company around USD104 billion.

Stocks were up overall as well.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading up 0.02% on Friday, the S&P 500 index was up 0.14% while the Nasdaq Composite index was down 0.01%.

Demand for Facebook was heavy, with an estimated 15-25% of the pie seen going to retail investors, according to CNBC data.

The price was trading in line with many expectations.

"A 15 to 20 percent pop is in the realm of possibility," said Tim Loughran, a finance professor at the University of Notre Dame, according to Reuters.

"Given they already moved their IPO range up and increased the size, that's bullish to begin with."

Facebook shares could see some selling in about three months, when the lock-up expires.

Normally when companies go public, they require investors to hang on to stocks not sold in the IPO for six months, though Facebook is ending the period in only three months — 91 days to be exact, according to company filings at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. stock market regulator.

In early U.S. trading, leading Nasdaq gainers included Yahoo!, up 5.38%, Joy Global, up 4.08%, and Wynn Resorts, up 3.99%.

Leading Nasdaq losers included Autodesk, down 15.55%, First Solar, down 3.89%, and Seagate Technology, down 2.65%.

Leading Dow Jones Industrial Average gainers included Caterpillar, up 1.70%, McDonald's Corp., up 1.44%, and Wal-Mart Stores, up 1.28%

Leading index losers included Coca-Cola, down 1.73%, JPMorgan, down 1.47%, and Hewlett-Packard, down 0.86%.

Stocks will continue to track Facebook's performance throughout the day.