The IT consulting firm hit the high end of its price range at $18 per share. It opened trading on the Nasdaq at $20.44 per share and rose briskly, gaining more than 30 percent from its IPO price to close at $23.48.

The strong showing surprised some industry observers, who had voiced concern about the IPO deal's structure, the lackluster e-services market and a disappointing earnings report earlier in the week from Cisco Systems, one of KPMG Consulting's major partners.

"This is the first IPO this year that has priced at the high end of its last range. That's a positive," says John Fitzgibbon, IPO editor at Wfnusa.com, an online stock market news site. "They also added a few extra shares to the pot."

Although analysts say KPMG Consulting's IPO bodes well for profitable blue-chip firms, they also say it isn't likely to help the beaten-down Web integration sector. "Wall Street has no interest in companies that are losing money," says Benny Lorenzo, an analyst at Aspira Capital Management.

"In light of everything that's happened over the past year, this should be a pretty decent IPO," says Tom Rodenhauser, president of Consulting Information Services, which tracks consulting firms. "The business prospects of KPMG look pretty good, and the numbers look pretty good."

KPMG Consulting isn't bringing in any cash from the IPO to expand its operations. Most of the money will go to KPMG LLP, which sold 83 million shares in the offering, and to Cisco, which invested $1 billion in KPMG Consulting in December 1999. In the wake of the IPO transaction, Cisco will still own 9.9 percent of KPMG Consulting's stock.

Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) and PricewaterhouseCoopers, have been watching KPMG Consulting's IPO closely and could follow suit with their own offerings, analysts say.

The Big Five's IT consultancies are splitting off from their accounting-firm parents, in part because new Securities and Exchange Commission rules restrict the amount of consulting services accounting firms can offer clients. The rules went into effect this month.