The share price of People.cn Co Ltd, the first State-owned news portal to go public, soared 76.4 percent on Friday in its debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The share price of People.cn, which operates the online news portal of the official People's Daily, rose from 15.28 yuan ($2.4) to 35.28 yuan by midday Friday registering a market value of nearly 10 billion yuan.

People.cn stock was temporarily suspended twice Friday morning because its price had risen more than 10 percent from the opening price, and more than 80 percent of it change hands.

People.cn went public as part of a government initiative to make State-owned media more competitive. Xinhuanet, the online portal of the official news agency Xinhua, is also set to raise 1 billion yuan in Shanghai.

The market value of Sina Corp, which operates the country's biggest news portal, stood at $3.9 billion, according to Nasdaq figures.