A London-based analyst said Numericable's decision to go public capitalized on the growing investment trend in cable companies.

Refusing to be named, the analyst said, "Cable assets are in vogue in Europe right now, so Numericable has chosen a good time to go public. The valuation was a bit full but shareholders can hope that Numericable gets bought or merges with a peer next year."

In its market debut on Friday, Numericable saw its shares rising to a maximum of 8%. Numericable shares traded as high as EUR26.83 per share early on Friday. The increase had put the company's market valuation to around EUR3 billion or USD4.01 billion. The increase also raised EUR652.2 million for the company.

According to a Reuters report, the listing of Numericable was the biggest done in France since four years ago. The IPO was also said to have shown that equity markets in the French state were strong this year. It also encouraged a revival of ther IPOs across Europe, said Reuters.

The cable company's debut came at the heels of the downgrade of the credit rating of France. Standard and Poor's credit rating for France had dragged the state's blue-chip CAC 40 index .FCHI down by 7% by 1035 GMT.