Shares in mobile phone company Safaricom soared 50% Audio slideshow ...
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Kenya in mobile phone share sale ... on their first day of trading after Kenya's biggest ever stock market flotation.
The stock rose to 7.5 Kenyan shillings (60p) from a sale price of 5 shillings in trade on the Nairobi Stock Exchange.
The Kenyan government should raise about $833m (Ј422m) from the sale of a 25% stake in the company.
The sale of 10 billion shares gave millions of working Kenyans a chance to own shares for the first time.
Foreign investors were required to pay 5.5 shillings, 10% more than the price offered to Kenyans.
Investor appetite
The sale was oversubscribed by more than 500%, a sign that investors have renewed appetite for Africa's largest economy after violence in the country following elections earlier this year, analysts said.
Unlike many Western countries, Kenya's mobile phone market is not saturated - only a third of Kenya's 36 million people own a mobile phone.
Analysts also said Safaricom's strategy of targeting low-income Kenyans would help boost its customer base.
But the share sale caused some controversy.
Opposition parties had tried to delay the issue because of uncertainty over Safaricom's other shareholders.
While the government insists it currently owns 60% of Safaricom with the other 40% in the hands of UK giant Vodafone, opposition groups say another firm called Mobitelea also has an interest.
Registered in Guernsey in the Channel Islands, Mobitelea's owners remain unknown.
Media reports in Kenya have speculated that Mobitelea owns as much as 10% of Safaricom.
Safaricom is East Africa's most profitable company, it made profits of $370m last year.
It employs more than 1,000 people.
(BBC)
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