NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Blackstone Group's (BX) rivals will be encouraged to follow the private-equity firm's path to a public listing as the stock rallied to a 15% premium to its initial public offering price.

Blackstone was recently trading at $35.80 on heavy volume of 86.7 million shares after reaching a high of $38.

The stock opened at $36.45 a share on its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, well above its $31 IPO price.

"I think they (other private-equity firms) would be very encouraged by what they are seeing," said Craig Asche, executive director of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association, or CAIA.

"It would not surprise me, assuming it (Blackstone) continues to trade well, to see others come to market and do the same thing," he said.

While Blackstone hasn't had the one-day "pop" enjoyed by hedge fund Fortress Investment Group (FIG), which soared 68% after its first day of trading on the NYSE in February, the stock seems to have traded in line with expectations.

Blackstone's eagerly awaited debut comes after the IPO priced at the top end of the expected range of $29 to $31 a share, set by lead underwriters Morgan Stanley (MS) and Citigroup Inc. (C).

The stock was expected to perform well after strong demand meant investors received fewer shares in the offering than expected or missed out altogether.

Blackstone's IPO, the largest in the U.S. in five years, valued the company at about $33.6 billion.

The deal has become one of the most talked about on Wall Street, both because of the huge payday for the firm's executives and a move in Congress to change the tax status of Blackstone and similar firms.

Blackstone Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman, who was paid $398.3 million last year, will take home about $677 million in cash proceeds from the IPO. Blackstone's 60-year-old co-founder is left with a 23% stake in the company, which is valued at more than $7.7 billion based on the IPO price, assuming the underwriters' option is exercised in full.

Blackstone's 81-year-old co-founder Peter Peterson sold $1.88 billion of his stake in the firm but retains 4%, which is valued at almost $1.4 billion.

Investors devoured shares in the IPO, which was believed to be about seven times oversubscribed, despite a move in Congress to raise the tax rate of Blackstone and similar firms to 35% instead of their current 15% rate.

A fresh bill proposed in the House of Representatives this week is similar to legislation proposed by the Senate Finance Committee except that it contains no transition period for a proposal to tax financial-services partnerships as corporations.

Instead of offering a five-year exemption from higher taxes, the latest proposal would apply to Blackstone on Jan. 1, 2008.

A key question now is whether the legislation will discourage other private-equity firms from going public.