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BENGALURU -Food delivery firm Zomato Ltd shares nearly doubled in value in debut trading on Friday, in the first stock market listing of an Indian startup valued at more than $1 billion.

The stellar debut, which was advanced by four days, reflected investor interest in internet-based consumer startups that are expected to thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic and comes at a time when India's stock market is near all-time highs.

Shares soared 82.8% after opening at 116 rupees in pre-open trade, which was a 52.6% premium to the initial public offering (IPO) price of 76 rupees, valuing the company at about $12 billion.

The 93.75 billion rupees IPO of Zomato, backed by China's Ant Group, is the first for a startup in India's food delivery market, which research firm RedSeer estimated is worth $4.2 billion.

The home-grown food aggregator, launched in 2008, operates in about 525 cities in India and has partnered with close to 390,000 restaurants.

It offers home delivery of food, allows customers to book tables for dining-in and collates restaurant reviews, making it a competitor to SoftBank-backed Swiggy and Amazon.com's food delivery service.

The company's offering last week drew bids worth $46.3 billion as it was more than 38 times oversubscribed, with big institutional investors also placing major bets.

"Growth is key here. Zomato might not be profitable but it is growing exponentially and is enviably positioned to keep that momentum," said Danni Hewson, a financial analyst with AJ Bell, an investment platform in England.

Zomato's loss for the year ended March 31 narrowed to 8.13 billion rupees, while revenue from operations fell slightly year-on-year to 19.94 billion rupees.