Twitter options volume heavy on first day

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Twitter Inc. shares slipped Friday after the social network got a sell rating from S&P Capital and options trading began on the New York Stock Exchange.

/quotes/zigman/23556538/delayed/quotes/nls/twtr TWTR 43.98, -0.71, -1.59% Twitter Inc.

Twitter (TWTR) shed 1.6% to close at $43.98, below its opening price of $45.10 when it went public last week. But the microblogging site's stock ended its first full trading week up 5.6%.

More than 122,000 Twitter options contracts traded across all exchanges, according to the NYSE. That would be considered very active for a stock on its first day of options trading.

Twitter on Friday was also given a sell rating and a price target of $30 by S&P Capital IQ.

In initiating coverage on the microblogging site's stock, S&P Capital analyst Scott Kessler said Twitter has "substantial revenue growth potential, given what we see as a notable multinational brand and user base, emerging monetization efforts, and strength in mobile." But he said the San Francisco-based social network "has been spending to support expansion, leading to considerable losses."

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Other social media stocks were up. Facebook (FB)  rose a fraction to close at $49.01, while LinkedIn (LNKD)  gained 4.3% to close at $231.06 and Yelp Inc. (YELP)   added 5.2% to close at $70.77.

The tech sector also got a lift from shares of Agilent Technologies (A) , which were up 8.7% to close at $54.93 after the company reported better-than-expected profit.

On the downside, shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL)  fell a fraction to close at $524.99.

The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP)  was up 0.3% to close at 3,986. The benchmark ended the week up 1.7%. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH)  and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX)  were each up a fraction.