The financial markets zigged lower Tuesday, but software maker VMware zagged in its trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Palo Alto, California-based software maker shot up 76 percent in its first day of trading while the broader financial markets took a nosedive. By the close of trading, shares of VMware had reached $51 from an offering price of $29.

The company's heady first-day ride marks a record single-day gain for an IPO this year, according to Thomson Financial, and comes as the Dow dropped 207.61 points at 13,028.92, the S&P sliced off 26.38 at 1,426.54, and the Nasdaq dropped 43.12 at 2,499.12.

VMware had planed to offer about 37.95 million shares at $29 apiece to raise $1.1 billion in its initial public offering. Data storage behemoth EMC bought VMware for $602 million in 2004 and holds an 87 percent share of VMware after the offering, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents.

VMware makes so-called virtualization software that allows computers to run different operating systems simultaneously. According to analyst firm IDC, fewer than 1 million of the 24.6 million x86, or Intel-based, servers and less than 5 million of the 489.7 million business end user PCs worldwide are using such virtualization software.

The software maker has reported blockbuster revenue growth. Revenue for full-year 2006 was $703.9 million, compared with $387 in 2005, an 82 percent increase.

Underwriters in the offering included Citi, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, and Deutsche Bank Securities.