Saudi Aramco shares surged to 35.2 riyals (9.39 U.S. dollars), an increase of 10 percent on the daily limit, after its initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday.

Biggest IPO ever

Having raised 25.6 billion U.S. dollars since its debut, Aramco surpassed Alibaba's 2014 New York flotation as the world's largest initial public offering.

The state-owned oil giant announced its final share price on December 5 at 32 riyals. Earning 68 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months this year, Saudi Aramco cemented its status as the most profitable company in the world, Bloomberg reported.

With a market valuation of 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars at the time and now 1.88 trillion U.S. dollars, it has already overtaken Apple as the world's most valuable listed firm.

The pricing comes as OPEC is deepening oil supply cuts to support its prices.

What is Aramco?

According to Bloomberg, the Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas company is based in Dhahran, a major city for the Saudi oil industry, which is located in the country's Eastern Province.

It has both the world's second-largest proven crude oil reserves, and second-largest daily oil production.

Plans always fall behind change

Ever since it was first teased in 2016, selling a part of the worlds most lucrative company has become symbolic of Riyadh's reform agenda, which is an attempt to wean the economy off a reliance on oil. 

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman first marked his rise to global prominence and his Vision 2030 plan to reform the country's economy in an interview with The Economist in January 2016.

Last year, the prince announced plans to list 5 percent of Aramco at a valuation of approximately 2 trillion U.S. dollars. However, only 1.5 percent is currently open to investors and its valuation is still below the 2 trillion goal and short of the 100-billion-U.S.-dollar international offering.

Saudi citizens were offered 0.5 percent of the company, an unprecedented retail offering compared with previous Saudi IPOs. And the remaining percent is for institutional investors. However, according to the Financial Times, less than 11 percent were made up by non-Saudi investors, and this portion also accounts for investment from elsewhere in the Gulf region.

(CGTN's Jacob Grevaes also contributed to the story. Zeng Hongen edited the first video.)