Shares of Realogy Holdings Corp. (Nasdaq: RLGY) vaulted nearly 30 percent after its $1.09 billion initial public offering was priced late Wednesday.

In midday Thursday trading, Realogy shares were at $33.51, after opening at $32.85. They were priced at $27 by underwriters Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM).

The Parsipanny, N.J.-based  company is the No. 1 company in real estate services revenue. It was acquired by Leon Black’s Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO) in an $8.5 billion private equity buyout.

Apollo will retain about 50 percent of Realogy, for now. Paulson & Co., a major hedge fund, will retain a 10 percent share, down from 15 percent before the IPO.

The company reported its second-quarter net loss widened 9 percent to $24 million, although revenue rose 11 percent to $1.3 billion a year ago.

The response may indicate investors believe the U.S. housing recession is easing. It may also be a harbinger of the expected IPO on Friday of Workday, the Pleasanton, Calif., human resources software company founded by the former bosses of PeopleSoft, which was acquired by Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), the No. 1 database developer.

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