Origin Energy shares made a solid return to trading on Tuesday, after the institutional part of the company's $2.5 billion equity raising, despite lingering concerns in some quarters about the company's balance sheet.

The shares closed at $5.56, down on the latest close of $6.10 before the raising, but 4.2 per cent higher on the equivalent price of the stock after the issue of more than 600 million new shares was taken into account. A hefty 46.8 million shares changed hands, several times the typical daily average.