DETROIT — General Motors’ stock rose the second day it traded as it rebounded from an early swoon.

The automaker’s stock climbed 7 cents, or 0.2 percent, to close at $34.26 on Friday, one day after it began trading on Wall Street again, signaling the rebirth of an American corporate icon that collapsed into bankruptcy and was rescued with a $50 billion infusion from taxpayers. In exchange, the government got a 61 percent stake in GM, and it hopes to get the bailout money back from the IPO and follow-up sales that may take years.

As trading began Friday, GM’s stock dropped $1.08 to $33.11 as investors sold it to lock in profits. But buying returned and gradually lifted the stock until it passed Thursday’s closing price of $34.19 near the end of the day.

GM stock was traded more than 107 million times, less than one-quarter of the volume traded on Thursday.

As the stock fell, bankers who managed GM’s initial public offering probably asked their larger investors to start buying so it wouldn’t fall below Thursday’s IPO price of $33 per share, said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University and former attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

A drop below $33 could anger customers who were persuaded to buy the stock in the IPO. It’s also possible, Henning said, that investors who saw the price drop decided to buy, either for the first time or to increase their stakes.

SEC regulations stop the banks from buying shares on their own.

Analysts said the initial sell-off likely was a combination of investors taking profits and people selling on fear that the price would drop even further.

Spokeswomen for GM and Morgan Stanley, one of the lead banks in the deal, would not comment on the day’s trading. A message was left for a spokeswoman from J.P. Morgan, the other lead bank.

There’s a lot riding on GM’s stock price in the coming months.