Google has exceeded heavily lowered expectations and increased its share value by 18 per cent following its first day's trading as a listed company on the Nasdaq in New York yesterday.

The company's stock finally opened officially at five minutes before noon (5pm UK time) yesterday at $100.01, exceeding the revised initial public offering (IPO) share price offered to bidders in its unusual 'Dutch-style' auction before it was due to begin trading.

On Wednesday Google was forced to cut the initial price range of its IPO from a maximum of $108 (£59) to between $85 (£46) and $95 (£52) per share for fear that it had set its sights too high, meaning bidders could only specify bids within that range.

But five million trades within the first two minutes of the search engine's listing helped boost demand for its shares, enabling the company to end the day on a share price of $100.335 - and with a market capitalisation value of some $27.2bn, making it more valuable than Amazon at $16bn.

There had been doubts about the potential success of a Google IPO, particularly after the Securities and Exchange Commission delayed the filing earlier this week after regulators investigated comments from its owners published in a Playboy magazine article.