Facebook shares close just above IPO price

Shares in social network firm Facebook closed just a few cents above its IPO price at $38.23 – despite jumping 12 per cent to $42 in initial trades.

The eight-year-old firm listed this morning on the NASDAQ index and shares began trading at 11.30am local time (4.30pm BST), thirty minutes later than expected after the exchange struggled to start the live trading.

Facebook’s flotation has become the third largest IPO in US history later, after pricing its shares at $38 each – the top end of an already increased price range – giving the social network an initial valuation of $104bn (£65bn) and raising an eye-watering $16bn for the firm.

The float comes at the end of a week that has seen the IPO jump in both size and price as Facebook struggled to meet demand for its shares.

Only General Motors and credit card firm Visa have had bigger IPOs and the offering gives the eight-year-old company, founded in a Harvard bedroom, a valuation equivalent to Amazon.com and exceeding that of Hewlett-Packard and Dell computers combined.