Shares in Kuwait's Qurain Petrochemicals almost quadrupled in their market debut, after an initial public offering which ranked as the Gulf state's biggest-ever share issue.

Qurain had sold 990 million shares at 100fils each for 99m dinars ($343 million) as long ago as 2004.

Qurain closed at 385fils after having opened at 360fils.

More than 34 million shares worth 12.9 million dinars changed hands, higher than the 8.7 million dinars of trade in Kuwait's biggest stock, Mobile Telecommuni-cations Company (MTC).

'The company is worth the price we are seeing. It is making good profit and it has a valuable stake in Equate,' said Waleed Al Braikan, senior portfolio manager at Gulf Investment.

Equate Petrochemical is a multi-billion-dollar joint venture between Qurain's parent company Petroleum Industries Company and Dow Chemical. Qurain has used the proceeds from its IPO to invest in petrochemical firms such as Equate.

Qurain's float ended a near drought on the Kuwaiti stock market in which mostly smaller companies have made their debuts in the past few years - in contrast to other Gulf bourses such as Dubai or Riyadh, which have seen big deals such as Saudi Kayan Petroche-mical's $1.80 billion IPO.

Qurain General Manager Walid Al Asfur said the company wanted to grow through acquisitions and by buying into companies and projects in the Gulf, North America, North Africa and Asia.

He said Qurain planned to invest in existing companies or projects rather than setting up new ventures as it aimed at seeing profits from the start.