(Bloomberg) --

Saudi Tadawul Group surged on its trading debut in Riyadh after the stock exchange raised $1 billion from an initial public offering.

The shares opened at 115.4 riyals before rising as much as 21% to 126.6 riyals. Tadawul set the IPO price at 105 riyals per share, the top of an indicative range, after attracting 458 billion riyals ($122 billion) of orders from investors. 

The IPO, the kingdom’s second-biggest this year after the $1.2 billion listing of ACWA Power International in October, comes as countries in the Middle East step up efforts to sell shares in private companies and boost liquidity on the stock markets.

Saudi Arabia has been the leader in the region, with the listings of ACWA Power and Saudi Telecom Co.’s internet-services unit -- both drawing overwhelming investor demand and surging by the daily limit on their first day of trade. Abu Dhabi has also seen an IPO boom, while Dubai has announced plans to list some 10 state-owned companies.

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