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LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) Investors putting money into some of Britain's biggest initial public offerings over the past two years have been rewarded with better returns than the overall market, accounting firm KPMG said on Monday.

Listings including insurer Admiral Group Plc and funeral services firm Dignity Plc recorded an average rise of 50 percent compared with 26 percent for the FTSE All-Share index, KPMG said.

Its research also noted that shares in all but one of the 16 trading companies to join the main UK market in 2004 and 2005 and raise over 100 million pounds ($172.8 million) were valued above their float price on March 28.

Photography retailer Jessops Plc was the laggard in the survey, trading below its 155 pence listing level. Soft drinks company Britvic Plc was above its float price last week but has since slipped beneath the 230p threshold.

Despite talk of waning appetite for IPOs in some areas of the market such as real estate, KPMG noted that the first-quarter had proved particularly fruitful for companies carrying out fundraising.

Nearly 2.9 billion pounds was raised through IPOs in the UK in the first quarter -- a sharp rise from 587 million raised in the same period last year and 773 million in the first three months of 2004, KPMG said.

The amount includes both domestic and foreign firms, with South Korean retailer Lotte Shopping accounting for a large portion of that figure with its $3.5 billion flotation.

High-profile defence group QinetiQ Group Plc and real estate Web site Rightmove Plc also contributed to the total.

REUTERS RA BD1738