March reached an all-time high turnover, moreover, a record-breaking number of trades were executed via the system. Compared with March 2003, the value of equity trades executed in the Exchange's trading system more than doubled from DKK 19 to 38 billion.
The reason for this growth has been a keen interest in the shipping and wind turbine industries. This led to huge price rises in the first two months of the quarter, however, due to too high expectations for financial results from the market and low expectations for future earnings from the companies this trend did not continue in March.
The bustling activity on the equity market was also traceable in the trading in investment certificates, where the turnover in market value almost tripled compared with the corresponding period last year.
The growing interest in equities and investment certificates reflects a general expectation for lower economic uncertainty and improved profitability among the companies. The combination of the expectation for lower uncertainty and the low rates of interest stimulates activity on the equity market and the demand for more risky investments with a larger return potential.
If the first quarter of 2004 is compared with the same period last year, the size of the average trade has fallen. If this is compared with the higher turnover in investment certificates, it seems like interest in the equity market is growing among the private investors.
March was also the month when the number of single share options reached an all-time high on the derivatives market, which compared with a high number of futures contracts also pulled the total number of contracts traded to an all-time high. The reason for the increase in the number of single share options traded was partly the quarterly expiry of contracts in March, partly a period of increased volatility in the underlying shares.
Key figures for the Copenhagen Stock Exchange
| Mar-04 | Feb-04 | Change Feb. 04 to Mar. 04 | Change Mar. 03 to Mar. 04 | Year to date 2004 | Year to date 2003 | Change 2003 to 2004 | |
| Shares | |||||||
| Turnover in DKKbn | 58.2 | 50.5 | 15.3% | 83.4% | 162.2 | 80.4 | 101.7% |
| Turnover in DKKbn per day | 2.53 | 2.53 | 0.2% | 67.4% | 2.5 | 1.3 | 98.6% |
| Turnover in million shares | 327.6 | 344.7 | -5.0% | 28.8% | 998 | 632 | 57.9% |
| Turnover in million shares per day | 14.2 | 17.2 | -17.3% | 17.6% | 15.6 | 10.0 | 55.4% |
| No. of trades in thousands | 262.2 | 235.5 | 11.3% | 87.5% | 756.7 | 363.6 | 108.1% |
| No. of trades in thousands per day | 11.4 | 11.8 | -3.2% | 71.2% | 11.8 | 5.8 | 104.9% |
| Index performance | |||||||
| KFX | 258.8 | 275.9 | -6.2% | 38.6% | 5.9% | - | - |
| MidCap+ | 1808.4 | 1811.7 | -0.2% | 80.8% | 12.9% | - | - |
| SmallCap+ | 1594.6 | 1604.4 | -0.6% | 59.5% | 5.3% | - | - |
| KAX | 232.4 | 244.6 | -5.0% | 45.6% | 7.3% | - | - |
| KBX | 227.7 | 237.6 | -4.2% | 42.8% | 6.6% | - | - |
| Investment certificates, turnover in DKKbn | |||||||
| Listed on the stock market | 4.6 | 3.5 | 31.8% | 204.4% | 13.0 | 5.0 | 162.9% |
| Listed on the XtraMarked | 3.4 | 2.5 | 35.1% | 17.4% | 9.36 | 8.58 | 9.1% |
| Derivatives | |||||||
| No. of contracts traded | |||||||
| Futures | 62,821 | 51,797 | 21.3% | 5.1% | 159,743 | 149,857 | 6.6% |
| Options | 28,317 | 15,961 | 77.4% | 41.3% | 58,025 | 43,265 | 34.1% |
For further stock market statistics, please visit www.cse.dk.
