UBS says almost all new shares sold

Switzerland's largest bank said investors exercised rights to buy 755,466,901 shares, or 99.4 percent of all the new shares offered under the program authorized at the April 23 shareholders' meeting.

It said the remaining nearly 5 million new shares will be sold by UBS Investment Bank in open market transactions starting Friday.

UBS shares rose 5.2 percent to 25.58 francs ($24.62) in trading Friday in Zurich.

The capital hike is UBS' second major injection of funds in recent months, after the government of Singapore's fund and an undisclosed Middle Eastern investor pumped in 13 billion francs.

UBS has been working to regain investor confidence since posting a series of heavy losses since last summer. It has let a number of top managers go and has announced thousands of job cuts in its payroll of more than 80,000 employees.

UBS and other banks were hurt by the declining value of securities backed by subprime mortgage loans made in the United States to borrowers with risky repayment histories. Defaults on such loans have been rising.