NEW YORK — Shares of Russian search engine Yandex are climbing more than 30 percent in their market debut after the company raised $1.3 billion in an initial public offering.
That’s the most raised by an Internet company in the U.S. since Google Inc. (GOOG) went public in 2004, according to IPO research and investment fund Renaissance Capital.
The shares rose more than 40 percent on the Nasdaq, trading at $36 by midday after initially selling for $25 apiece. The initial share price gave Yandex a total market value of $8 billion.
Tuesday’s strong opening for Yandex follows the huge first-day pop last week of another technology company, networking website LinkedIn.
Yandex is Russia’s most-visited website. It generated 65 percent of Russia’s Internet search traffic in the first three months of the year.
