(Adds IPO market context, updates shares) SYDNEY, April 11...

(Adds IPO market context, updates shares)

SYDNEY, April 11 (Reuters) - Shares of Australian freight software company Wisetech Global Ltd jumped up to 8 percent over their issue price on Monday after raising A$170 million ($128 million) in the country's biggest technology listing in 11 months.

The shares first traded at A$3.41 and climbed as high as A$3.63, compared with an issue price of A$3.35, while the broader market fell 0.5 percent.

Sydney-headquartered Wisetech sold a 17.5 percent stake in the Initial Public Offering, giving it a market capitalisation of A$1 billion afterwards.

In an IPO prospectus, company founder Richard White said the purpose of listing was to pay down debt and fund growth. White kept about half the company's shares, according to the prospectus, now valued at A$500 million.

The upbeat listing performance is likely to be interpreted as a sign that Australian investors remain hungry for new listings despite a dramatic drop-off in IPO activity in the past year.

It is also a show of confidence in Australia's technology sector. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull talks of Australia becoming a global technology hub but one of the country's biggest software makers, Atlassian Corp Plc , picked the U.S. Nasdaq for a listing in December.

Before Turnbull became prime minister in September, Atlassian cited poor support for large technology companies from local investors and the government as its reasons for shunning Australia.

The biggest Australian technology company to list in the past year, accounting software maker MYOB Ltd (MYO), has seen its shares fall to 14 percent below their issue price since raising A$834 million in May 2015.

Wisetech says it has built up 6,000 customers in 115 countries since being founded in 1994. Its main software offering, CargoWise One, lets freight and logistics companies keep track of their goods in a single global database.

($1 = 1.3254 Australian dollars)