JAKARTA?Shares in Indonesian noodle maker Indofood Consumer Branded Products (ICBP) soared on its debut Thursday after last month's massively oversubscribed initial public offering, dealers said.

The IPO sold 1.17 billion shares for 6.2 trillion rupiah ($695 million) and was seven times overbooked in the latest sign of strong foreign interest in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

Investors who missed out on the IPO snapped up the stock as soon as the Jakarta stock exchange opened, pushing its value 12 percent higher than the offer price of 5,395 rupiah by mid-morning trade.

"Most of the buyers today are foreign funds, which could mean that the company is quite attractive for long-term investment," one fund manager told Dow Jones Newswires.

ICBP produces 15.7 billion packets of instant noodles a year and exports noodles, baby food, seasonings, pasta and flour to countries such as Australia, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United States.

It contributed almost half of the net sales recorded in the six months to June by parent company PT Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk, which posted an operating profit of 3.12 trillion rupiah during the period.

That was an increase of 40.3 percent, thanks largely to higher domestic consumption in the Southeast Asian country of 240 million people, Indofood said.