Twitter shares priced At $26 in Initial Public Offering

Twitter has set a price of $26 for its public stock offering and can begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The price values the San Francisco-based micro blogging site at $14.1bn, based on its outstanding stock and options, Reuters reported.

It is offering 70 million shares in the Initial Public Offering (IPO), with an option to buy another 10.5 million.

Twitter had originally set a price range of $17 to $20, but raised the range on Monday signalling an enthusiastic response from prospective investors.

A statement from the company read: "We've priced our initial public offering of 70,000,000 shares of our common stock at a price to the public of $26 per share.

"In addition we've guaranteed the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 10,500,000 additional shares of common stock.

"Our shares are expected to begin trading on the NYSE on November 7 under the symbol TWTR."

Analysts said they expected shares in the company to experience a small rise during the first day of trading.

Investor enthusiasm for Twitter, which boasts 230 million users, is strong even though the micro blogging site has never turned a profit.