Line rockets on first day of trading after largest tech IPO of the year

Shares in Line rocketed in their first day of trading on the NYSE.

The company, which was the Japanese subsidiary of South Korean internet search giant Naver, owned the most popular messaging app in the Asian country, had priced its offering earlier in the same week at the top end of the proposed range, raising $1.14bn in the process.

It was hoped that its successful flotation might mark a thawing of sorts in the market for technology-IPOs Stateside, seeing how it was the largest stockmarket debut for a tech firm year-to-date.

Priced to go at $32.84 per American Depositary Receipt, by 15:13 BST those were trading higher by 33.33% to reach $43.30.

Stock in Line, which was valued at $7bn at the opening bell on Thursday, would trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker LN.

Line had a dual-listing, with 13m shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange changing hands under code 3938 and 22 million ADR's also being traded.

Revenues at Line grew by 86.7% in 2015 to reach 120.4bn yen (£827m), but registered net losses of £53.38.

Following Thursday's IPO naver was left holding 83.3% of the voting shares.

The firm was planing to sell another 5.25m shares subject to demand.