Twitter's Share Price Soars On Opening Day Twitter's share price has risen by more than 75% on the company's first morning of trading in New York. The social networking site, which started trading at 1430 GMT under the ticker symbol TWTR, had set a price of $26 (£16) for its public stock offering. However, in a sign that investors are willing to bet on potential growth at the company, the price leapt to more than $45.70 within three hours - a rise of 75.7%. The original price valued the San Francisco-based micro-blogging site at more than $18bn (£11.2bn), based on its outstanding stock, options and restricted stock expected to be available after the initial public offering (IPO). The company has initially offered 70 million shares with an option to buy another 10.5 million. Twitter is trading under the ticker symbol TWTR Twitter boasts 230 million global users, including heads of state and celebrities. However, the company lost $65m (£40m) in its most recent quarter and questions remain about its long-term prospects. Twitter's stock market debut is the biggest of any technology firm since Facebook went public in 2012. The floor of the New York Stock Exchange was busy with both traders and media, eager to see how the company would fair in its first few hours of trading. Twitter had initially set a price range of $17 (£10.57) to $20 (£12.44) but raised the range on Monday signalling an enthusiastic response from prospective investors.