Twitter surges in opening trade on NYSE

NEW YORK — If Twitter’s bankers and executives were hoping for a surge on the day of the stock’s public debut, they got it. The stock opened at $45.10 a share on its first day of trading, 73 percent above its initial offering price.

“It’s gone on pretty flawlessly,” says JJ Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade.

The stock is now trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “TWTR.” It’s the most highly anticipated initial public stock offering since Facebook debuted last year. More than an hour into trading, the stock is holding steady. This tight range of trading, Kinahan says, indicates that people “feel like it was pretty fairly priced.”

The opening price values Twitter Inc. at $31 billion, which puts it in in range of KFC and Pizza Hut owner Yum Brands, tractor and tool maker Deere & Co. and slightly below State Street Corp., a financial services holding company.

“It clearly shows that demand exceeds the supply of shares,” says Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. “It’s impossible to know what the real value is.”