Mobile phones are popular in Saudi Arabia

Ettihad Etisalat's Saudi stock market debut involves the sale of 20 million shares at 50 riyals ($13.3) a share.

Police were called after a bank manager was assaulted and scuffles broke out among investors scrambling for scarce application forms, local press said.

The reports said an extra two million forms have now been printed.

Popular stock

Ettihad Etisalat is the newly-created Saudi affiliate of Etisalat, a United Arab Emirates phone operator which owns a 35% stake in it.

The share offering is already heavily oversubscribed - by as much as 20 times the available shares, according to some analysts.

Some banks ran out of forms, so people started to think the staff were holding them back for their favourite customers Alhassan Goussous, Saudi British Bank

Ettihad Etisalat holds licences to build and operate Saudi Arabia's first 3G mobile network as well as the country's second GSM network, putting it in competition with the country's former monopoly provider, Saudi Telecom.

The company paid more than $3.4bn (�1.8bn) for the two licences and expects to sign up about seven million of Saudi Arabia's 24 million inhabitants in its first five years of operation.

The bulk of the funding - $2.3bn - came from a Sharia-approved Islamic loan deal put together by Samba Financial Group, with involvement from seven other Gulf-based financial institutions, US-based bank Citigroup and French firm BNP Paribas.

The stock market flotation is needed to raise the rest.

Black market

"Some banks ran out of forms, so people started to think the staff were holding them back for their favourite customers," said Alhassan Goussous, head of investment services at The Saudi British Bank.

"Some people are going into branches, collecting forms and then selling them for around 50 riyals," he added.

One bank has sacked three staff for improper conduct, according to a report on the AME Info website.

The company expects to create about 4,500 jobs in its first five years, and has promised that the bulk of them will be for Saudi citizens.

Lack of job opportunities in Saudi Arabia may be one reason for the frenzied reception given to Ettihad Etisalat's shares, in the view of some commentators.

"There is a lot of unemployment in Saudi at the moment, so many people are naturally looking for other sources of income in the capital market," said Oubada Duwaji, an investment advisor at Shuaa Capital in Dubai.

Saudi Arabia's stock market has risen strongly in recent months, creating a "big appetite for shares", said Mr Goussous.

New laws introduced in 2003 made stock trading easier for small investors.