Dentsu Inc., the nation's largest advertising agency, registered on Friday the maximum daily allowable gain -- 50,000 yen -- to end the day at 470,000 yen on its first day of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Dentsu rose steadily after fetching an initial price of 420,000 yen when it made its debut on the TSE's first section, one of the largest listings of the year.
The opening price was the same as its initial public offering price, giving Dentsu stock a market value of 584.1 billion yen with 1.39 million outstanding shares.
There have been no such large-capitalization stock listings since McDonald's Co. (Japan) debuted on the Jasdaq over-the-counter market in July.
It was the first listing of an advertising agency since Asatsu Inc., the forerunner of Asatsu-DK Inc., was listed on the second section of the TSE in 1987.
Dentsu made an IPO of 135,000 shares -- 25,000 new shares and 110,000 shares that had been owned by such shareholders as Kyodo News and Jiji Press.
Of the 110,000 shares, 76,250 were sold to domestic investors, while the remaining 33,750 were sold to investors abroad.
According to a book-building survey, there was substantial overturn demand for Dentsu shares from investors both in Japan and abroad.
During a book-building period, brokerage houses sound out investors about the number of shares they want to buy and the price they are willing to pay.
As the unit of trading is one share, Dentsu shares are likely to appeal to individual investors and the market is expecting the issue to contribute to the recovery of market conditions.
After the benchmark Nikkei stock average fell below the 10,000 line in September, following the terrorist attacks on the United States, the market has been rebounding on growing expectations of the early disposal of banks' bad loans and the yen's ongoing weakness against the dollar.