1999 Trading Volume, IPOs Star At The NYSE

The New York Stock Exchange set records in 1999 for trading volume and initial public offerings, listing more than 94 percent of the year's qualified domestic IPOs, according to preliminary year-end results. The Exchange this year reached record trading levels on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis. Year-to-date average daily trading volume is at a record 813.6 million shares11 For comparison purposes, it should be noted that trading volume is counted differently by different markets. On the NYSE, most of the volume reflects customer-to-customer transactions. An NYSE transaction in which one customer sell 100 shares to another counts as 100 shares of volume. In contrast, in dealer markets, a dealer generally buys shares from one customer and sells them to another; in fact, more than one dealer may participate between ultimate buyer and seller. A dealer-market transaction in which one customer sells 100 shares to a dealer who then sells them to another customer counts as 200 shares; if another dealer participated between the customers, 300 shares. Thus, volume reported by the NYSE is generally less than that of a dealer market for same activity., a 20.8 percent increase over last year's 673.6 million share average. A total of 201.0 billion shares have traded, up 18.4 percent over the 1998 volume of 169.7 billion shares. Volume on 18 days this year crossed 1 billion shares, with a record 1.35 billion shares traded on Dec. 17. Seven of the top 10 record volume days also occurred in 1999. Eight of the 10 busiest weeks, as well as eight of the 10 busiest months in NYSE history have all occurred in 1999, with 5.5 billion shares traded during the week ended Dec. 17 and 18.8 billion shares traded in October, both records. Trading volume in December, meanwhile, is at a record pace, with 16.8 billion shares traded as of Dec. 23, and the month is expected to exceed the October record. Fourth-quarter 1999 is expected to rank as the busiest three months in history, with 54.0 billion shares traded as of Dec. 23. There were no network or systems interruptions reported during any of the record days and the Exchange this year increased its trading capacity to 4.5 billion from 2 billion. Year-to-date average daily value of trading on the Exchange is at a record $35.8 billion, up 23.4 percent over the 1998 level of $29.0 billion. The total value of shares traded is at a record $8.8 trillion, an increase of 20.5 percent over 1998's $7.3 trillion. Initial public offerings, meanwhile, took the limelight in new listings, with the largest domestic, non-U.S., Silicon Valley, biotechnology, financial and bottling industry IPOs launched at the NYSE. The Nov. 10 $5.5 billion offering by United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) and Nov. 2 $19 billion offering by Italian power company ENEL SpA (NYSE: EN) were historic in size. Silicon Valley's largest IPO took place on Nov. 18, with the $2.16 billion offering by Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A), while Genentech Inc.'s (NYSE: DNA) July 17 $1.9 billion offering ranked as the largest biotechnology IPO. Wall Street's oldest and largest investment-banking firm, The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS), led with the largest IPO for a financial services company with its $3.7 billion May 4 offering and the Pepsi Bottling Co.'s (NYSE: PBG) $2.3 billion March 31 offering ranked as the largest for the bottling industry. With 145 newly-listed companies as of last week, the Exchange currently has 3,028 listed companies with a record 274 billion shares available for trading and a total global market capitalization of $15.9 trillion, also a record. At year-end 1998, the NYSE had 3,114 companies trading 239 billion shares valued at $13.5 trillion. New listings, and previously listed companies, had to meet higher listing standards and procedures that were implemented by the Exchange in August. Non-U.S. companies, to date, have accounted for 28 of the new listings. A record 394 non-U.S. companies from 49 countries are listed on the Exchange. A total of 39 domestic and four non-U.S. companies have transferred from Nasdaq and 15 domestic and two non-U.S. from the American Stock Exchange. To date, the Exchange has listed 50 domestic and 10 non-U.S. IPOs. The NYSE Composite Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) both reached record highs of 663.12 on July 16 and 11,405.76 on Dec. 23, respectively. The DJIA rose to the five-figure level on March 29, closing at 10,006.88. The NYSE Composite Index opened the year at 595.81 and the DJIA at 9,181.42. The Exchange will be closed the following days in 2000: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Jan.17; Washington's Birthday, Feb. 21 (observed); Good Friday, April 21; Memorial Day, May 29; Independence Day, July 4; Labor Day, Sept. 4; Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 23; and Christmas Day, Dec 25.