Tekscend Photomask shares jump 11% in Tokyo debut

TOKYO (Reuters) -Tekscend Photomask shares jumped 11% in their Tokyo debut on Thursday, joining in a run of gains for tech stocks in the country.

The manufacturer of photomasks, which are used to transfer patterns onto semiconductor wafers, raised 138.9 billion yen ($920 million) after pricing its initial public offering at 3,000 yen per share, the top of a range.

Tekscend Photomask shares began trading nearly 20% above the IPO price at 3,570 yen per share, before paring gains to around 3,330 yen.

Tech stocks have been buoyant in Japan amid global enthusiasm for companies seen as benefiting from investments in artificial intelligence.

Toppan Holdings carved out the business three years ago with private equity firm Integral. Prior to the listing, Toppan had a 50.1% stake in Tekscend Photomask, with Integral holding the remaining 49.9%.

($1 = 150.9000 yen)

(Reporting by Sam Nussey, Miho Uranaka and Anton Bridge; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Muralikumar Anantharaman)