General Motors Co made a triumphant return to Wall Street less than a year and a half after the government rescued the automaker and forced a massive overhaul but its shares lost momentum after an early bounce.
As some of the automaker's newest models lined up outside of the New York Stock Exchange, GM shares began trading on the floor of the Big Board to the sound of a revving Camaro engine, taking the place of the traditional opening bell.
Close to 220 million shares had traded by the market close, more than triple the amount of trading in Citigroup Inc, the next most actively traded stock. GM shares also traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The start of trading in GM shares is one of the final steps in an initial public offering process negotiated by the Obama administration that raised $20.1 billion in common and preferred shares, making it the biggest IPO in U.S. history.
The IPO caps the first stage of a turnaround that has taken the 102-year-old automaker from near-death via a 2009 bailout, to unlikely Wall Street flotation favorite in 2010.
A successful stock debut may help the Obama administration argue that the controversial $50 billion taxpayer bailout of GM was worthwhile. The White House said U.S. taxpayers were on track to recoup the full investment made by the administration and that it hoped to make substantial progress shedding the government's stake entirely by mid-to-late 2012.
"American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my administration invested in GM," President Barack Obama told reporters at the White House on Thursday afternoon.
The government has estimated that an industry failure led by a GM collapse would have cost 1 million jobs, including suppliers, and would have reduced U.S. GDP by 1 percent.
