Steady growth in listing activities
Listing activities, the core business of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, continued to grow at a steady pace throughout the first six months of 2008.
The number of quotation lines at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange reached 48,067 on 30 June 2008. This represented an increase of 5.47% over six months and 11.58% over 12 months. Listings on the regulated market amounted to 43,226 on the EU regulated market, while 4,841 securities were listed on the Euro MTF market.
Listed securities were made up of the following: 32,818 bonds, 297 Luxembourg and foreign shares and certificates (including 229 Depositary Receipts), 7,750 investment funds (including 7,584 Luxembourg funds), and 7,202 warrants.
In an increasingly competitive environment, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange remains the leading centre for the listing of international securities in Europe.
Trading activity on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange
Trading volumes declined during the first half of 2008 to € 102.59 million, with a daily average of € 0.83 million.
The share portion of trading volumes was € 94.51 million, or 92.13% of total volume. The bond segment amounted to the sum of € 8.07 million.
The LuxX index closed the half year at 1,990.596 points.
Introduction of a Clearing & Settlement structure
As part of its long-term strategy to increase its activities, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange set up a clearing and settlement structure in March 2008. The first trades under the new structure were executed on 14 March 2008 and were successfully settled on 19 March 2008.
The new model was established with LCH.Clearnet SA as Central Counterparty. An innovative structure allows participants to use both International Central Securities Depositories to settle trades: Clearstream Banking Luxembourg and Euroclear Bank.
Improved dissemination services
In order to meet the need for greater transparency as regards its listed securities, improvements were implemented in the dissemination services of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and on its website.
Most of these improvements related to dissemination of documents and financial information from issuers. Changes included the introduction of RSS feeds and an improved “Financial News Service” in order for issuers to rapidly publish and disseminate notices and press releases. The dissemination of documents such as prospectuses was also improved with the introduction of an online delivery facility for data vendors.
Stock Exchange Day 2008
Held on 10 April 2008, this year’s Stock Exchange Day proved to be the most popular ever, with over 700 guests in attendance. The guest speaker was Michel Pébereau, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of PNB Paribas, who delivered a speech on “The subprime crisis and strategies to deal with it”.
Contribution to the promotion of the Luxembourg financial centre
In line with the international nature of its business, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange welcomed delegations from many nations including, among others, Brazil, India, Russia and Uzbekistan.
The Luxembourg Stock Exchange also contributed to the promotion of the financial centre through its involvement in various events abroad and in Luxembourg, notably the Luxembourg Financial Forum held on 30 May 2008.