Facebook shares fall 4% as lock-up period expires

NEW YORK (REUTERS) - Facebook shares fell 4 per cent to US$21.07 (S$25.64) in busy early trade on Wednesday morning on the company's approval to let employees sell some stock.

The world's largest social network waived a provision that prevented employees from selling shares until Nov 14. As a result, Facebook staffers were able to sell their vested shares on Oct 29.

However, because the markets were closed on Monday and Tuesday due to powerful storm Sandy, Wednesday was the first trading day. About 234 million shares held by employees are eligible for sale in the public market.

Facebook suffered a painful public debut earlier this year, as investors worried about the company's ability to keep up its revenue growth and the large pool of additional shares in the lock-up that are now hitting the market.