The paper examines the relationship between first day returns from Initial Public Offerings that took place in the London Stock Exchange and the media exposure of companies prior to their listing. The research was carried out from January 1, 1997 to May 31, 2002 on a population of 687 firms in the UK. It takes into consideration the underpricing trend of recent offerings, the effect of the technological crash of 2000 and the issue and firm size. Research results indicate systematic relationships between the variables capturing the market sentiment surrounding an IPO and its first day returns. Contrary to previous surveys regarding the psychology of the stock market, research results show negative correlation between underpricing and media exposure. Also, the underpricing of an IPO candidate follows its recent IPOs' level of underpricing, exclusively before the tech-crash period. Moreover, the mean level of first day returns is found to be significantly higher for the same period. Finally, research results comply with the past literature indicating that, on average, large companies offer lower first day returns and small companies raise relatively more money when going public.

.