Investors, it turns out, were in the mood for donuts. Shares of the Krispy Kreme chain returned to Wall Street and rose 23.5% Thursday, despite getting off to a bit of a lackluster start. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company known for its glazed doughnuts priced its initial public offering of 29.4 million shares at $17 a piece. That’s well below the $21 to $24 it was seeking. It raised $500 million and plans to use proceeds to pay down debt. The stock trading on Nasdaq under the “DNUT” ticker symbol opened Thursday at $16.30 but then moved higher before finishing the day at $21.
