Shares of Spanish beauty group Puig were losing ground Friday after its stock market debut, but were holding just above the issue price, in Spain's biggest initial public offering in nearly a decade.

Shares opened at 25.68 euros ($27.59), above their issue price of 24.5 euros, rose to 26.5 euros and then fell back to 24.6 euros by 1030 GMT.

This week, the owner of Paco Rabanne and Carolina Herrera perfumes priced Spain's biggest IPO in nearly a decade at the highest level of its target valuation range, giving it a market capitalization of nearly €14 billion.

The Puig family-owned company's IPO is the latest in a string of IPOs in Europe this year, thanks to rising share prices and improved market confidence.

(1 U.S. dollar = 0.9309 euros)

(Reporting by Joan Faus, Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro and Corina Pons; editing by Andrei Khalip; Spanish editing by Javi West Larrañaga and Benjamín Mejías Valencia)