Social networking company Facebook closed at 38.37 dollars per share for its first trading day on the Nasdaq stock market on Friday, up 0.97 percent from its IPO price of 38 dollars.

Pedestrians walk past the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York, the United States, May 18, 2012. Facebook went IPO on Friday. [Shen Hong/Xinhua]

Unlike the anticipation of many investors, Facebook did not gain much on its first trading day and barely held onto its issuing price of 38 dollars per share.

The stock's trading was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., but was delayed due to some technical problems, with traders saying they were having trouble changing or canceling orders they had submitted. A total of 82 million shares changed hands during the first 30 seconds of trading.

The world's leading online social network issued 421 million shares on its initial public offering at 38 dollars per share, raising more than 16 billion dollars. It was the largest ever IPO for an Internet company.