Growth of listing activities
At the 2011 half-year end, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange had admitted a total of 5,273 new securities on its secondary market, against 4,460 over the same period in 2010, representing an 18.23% increase. In doing so, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange maintained its position in Europe in terms of listings.
During the first half of 2011, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange admitted to trading on its regulated market the two bonds issued by the European Union as part of its aid package for Ireland and Portugal. One was issued by the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) and the other by the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). The Luxembourg Stock Exchange also listed the first contingent convertible bond. This type of financial instrument is used by banks to comply with Basel III regulations, more specifically regarding own funds. Finally, on 31 January 2011, the shares of APERAM, the ArcelorMittal spin-off of its stainless and specialty steel business, were admitted to trading on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
For Global Depositary Receipts, the situation has remained relatively stable compared to last year, with 23 new admissions by 30 June 2011. Currently, 280 Global Depositary Receipts are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, reflecting its role as a global leader in this field.
As at 30 June 2011, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange had a total 44,633 quotation lines on its two markets, of which 38,184 were on the regulated market and 6,449 on the Euro MTF market. These were comprised of 29,799 bonds, 337 shares, 6,372 investment funds and 8,125 warrants.
The market
The LuxX, the flagship index of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, closed the first half of 2011 at 1,406.91 points against 1,384.13 at 30 June 2010, representing a 1.65% increase. APERAM joined the LuxX index on 1 March 2011, increasing the number of companies in the index to 12.
Trading volume reached a total amount of EUR 88.06 million. The fixed income segment representing to 77.79% of this total.
The Exchange continued its efforts to enlarge the number of market makers, a source of liquidity for the bond segment.
Data dissemination
As part of its diversification policy, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange was active in two main areas, the dissemination of market and financial information and the transmission of financial data in the framework of legal and regulatory reporting to the national authorities: the CSSF and the BCL.
Therefore, together with its subsidiary Finesti, during the first half of 2011 it continued the development of services related to these activities. New functionalities were added to the OAM (Officially Appointed Mechanism) system of the Exchange.
For its part, Finesti increased it range of services for investment funds, in particular those related to the UCITS IV directive, which came into force at the beginning of this month.
Half-year main events
Following the annual general meeting of 20 April 2011, Frank Wagener, chairman of the board of directors of DEXIA Banque Internationale à Luxembourg S.A. was elected chairman of the board of directors of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, succeeding Raymond Kirsch, chairman from 2004 to 2011.
The 29th edition of the Stock Exchange Day was held on 17 May 2011 at the Luxembourg-Kirchberg conference centre. The guest speaker was Vitor Caldeira, President of the European Court of Auditors. His speech was entitled “Accountability, transparency and public sector audit in the EU – the impact of the crisis”.
Regulatory watch and promotion
The Luxembourg Stock Exchange participated actively in the work at national and European level on financial sector and capital markets regulation, particularly relating to the revision of the EU Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).
To this end, it carried out awareness-raising actions by organising regular meetings with representatives of government and political bodies and within economic and financial circles. In the same spirit, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange also took an active role in the works of the High Committee of the Financial Centre, chaired by Luc Frieden, Minister of Finance.
The Exchange continues to contribute to the promotion of the Luxembourg financial centre and took part in the state visit to Norway from 30 May to 1 June 2011, during which officials of Exchange met officials of the Oslo Stock Exchange, a European entity that is still largely independent, as is the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.