The value of total trading in the first six months of the year reached new highs and amounted to DKK 303 billion, which is almost 75 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year. The trading volume also broke the record with just under 1.3 million trades, a rise of 66 per cent compared with the first six months of 2003. The handsome turnover we saw in the second half of 2003 has thus continued into the first half of 2004.
The most actively traded share in the first half of 2004 was A.P. Møller- Mærsk B with a turnover of DKK 46.2 billion followed by TDC with DKK 43.7 billion. The third most actively traded share was Danske Bank with DKK 34.1 billion, then followed Novo Nordisk B and Group 4 Falck with DKK 33.5 billion and DKK 14.1 billion, respectively.
Investors may also be pleased with rising prices, as the KAX Index has gained 11 per cent in the first six months of the year. The rise is primarily caused by the companies in the Health Care, Materials and IT industries. The only industry which recorded a negative yield in the first half of the year was Telecom, where prices fell by just under 7 per cent.
The improvement in investor confidence and the rising prices have also had a positive effect on the issuance activities. In the first six months of the year, the listed companies raised approx. DKK 9.7 billion in proceeds. This positive development comes after a few years with slow activity on the issuing market, and you must go all the way back to the year 2000 to find more issuance activity.
In the first half of the year, trading in listed investment certificates more than doubled compared with the first half of 2003 and amounted to DKK 21.9 billion. The listed investment certificates are primarily based on shares. A total of 5 new investment funds joined the CSE market in the first six months of the year.
On the XtraMarked for non-exchange listed investment certificates turnover amounted to DKK 19.2 billion in the first six months of the year, which is almost 8 per cent lower than the corresponding period last year.
On the derivatives market the trading volume reached 360,182 contracts distributed on 280,536 futures contracts and 79,646 option contracts, corresponding to a fall of 7.5 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively, on the first six months of 2003. The most actively traded option among the single share options was the TDC option with 24,233 contracts, followed by the Danske Bank option with 11,762 contracts and Novo Nordisk with 11,617 contracts.
Activity on the bond market was more moderate. Turnover amounted to DKK 3,060 billion in market value, which is 13.5 per cent lower than in the corresponding period last year.
The most active government bond was the newly replaced 10-year benchmark bond at 5 per cent interest with expiry in 2013, which reached a turnover of DKK 224 billion in 2003. On the mortgage credit market the Nykredit 5 per cent with expiry in 2035 peaked with a turnover of DKK 119 billion.
