2 AT&T; Stocks on Opposite Tracks

The market giveth, the market taketh away: AT&T; Wireless Group’s tracking stock rose 8% in Thursday’s debut, but the parent company’s shares slid 6%.

Shares of the wireless unit (ticker symbol: AWE) gained $2.31 to close at $31.81 the day after its record-shattering $10.6-billion initial public offering, as investors paid up for an instant blue-chip company with long-term growth prospects.

“You can’t expect a deal of this size to double or triple on the opening,” said Corey Ostman, chief technology officer of Alert-IPO.com in Los Angeles.

AT&T; Corp.’s regular shares (T) eased $3 to $48. Both trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Although the tracking stock’s successful sale and trading debut brought a little relief to a nervous IPO market, the deal is not seen as a bellwether.

AT&T; Wireless is not “a proxy for health of the IPO market,” said David Menlow, president of IPOfinancial.com in Millburn, N.J. “This stock runs in its own world. If the deal does well, it doesn’t signal the Second Coming of the IPO market. If it does poorly, it’s not going to affect a market that’s already been damaged.”

Indeed, Lehman Bros. on Thursday postponed the planned IPOs by Birch Telecom, a provider of telecommunications services to small and mid-sized businesses, and Inventa Technologies, a provider of Internet professional services, citing market conditions.

Praecis Pharmaceuticals (PRCS), a profitable company developing drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer, rose 10% in its debut to $11, after slicing the size of its IPO late Wednesday by more than 40% to attract investors.

The AT&T; Wireless Group tracking stock is intended to reflect the unit’s separate performance. Its operations include all mobile and fixed wireless licenses; all wireless networks, operations, and wireless customer-care sites; and interests in partnerships and affiliates providing wireless services in the U.S. and internationally.