- Trading at the Iceland Stock Exchange (ICEX) during Q1 amounted to ISK 380.3 billion, which is a 57% increase over 1st quarter turnover last year (ISK 242.8 billion). This quarter recorded the highest turnover ever, on both the equity and bond markets.
- Monthly turnover during the 1st quarter was highest in March, ISK 134.5 billion, a figure which has only been exceeded in the month of September last year.
- Equities trading amounted to ISK 116.7 billion, which is an increase of just over 42% from the previous year (ISK 82.0 billion).
- Bond and bill trading amounted to ISK 263.6 billion, an increase of 64% on the previous year (ISK 160.8 billion).
- The ICEX-15 Index closed at 1,419.4 points, which is a 5.0% rise from the beginning of the year.
- The Finance and Insurance Index registered the greatest rise of sector indices, with an increase of 9.6% since the beginning of the year.
- No new companies were listed during the quarter and 4 were delisted. There were 60 listed companies at the end of March.
- There are now 18 ICEX members, including one foreign member, a drop of one during the 1st quarter.
Equity Market
- Equity turnover during the 1st quarter of 2003 was ISK 116.7 billion, making this a record quarter. Turnover surpassed the former record set in the same quarter of 2002 (ISK 82.0 billion) by 42%.
- A new monthly record for equity turnover was set in March, when equity trading amounted to ISK 50.7 billion while February ranks third on the all-time turnover list, with turnover of ISK 37.0 billion. The former record was set in September of last year, when equity trading amounted to ISK 38.6 billion.
- The share of on-exchange trades was 14.2% as compared to 21.1% the previous year. In absolute terms, on-exchange trading was, however, almost the same as during the 1st quarter of last year, or ISK 16.6 billion as compared to ISK 17.3 billion.
- First quarter annualized turnover velocity was 87%, as compared to 70% during the 1st quarter of 2002.
- No new companies were listed on ICEX during the first three months of this
year. Four companies were delisted, three from the Main List and one from the
Alternative Market.
Delistings during the 1st quarter of 2003
8.1.2003 Hlutabrefasjodur Islands hf., following a merger with the investment company Kaldbakur hf.
28.2.2003 Frumherji hf.
7.3.2003 Icelandic Alloys Ltd.
11.3.2003 SR-mjol hf., following a merger with Sildarvinnslan hf. - At the end of March, shares in 60 companies were listed. There were 44
companies on the Main List, three of them equity funds. Nine companies were
Equity Market
listed on the Growth List, including one equity fund, and seven on the
Alternative Market.
- Total market value of listed equities at the end of the 1st quarter was ISK 543 billion as compared with ISK 527 billion at year-end 2002 and 479 billion at the end of the 1st quarter 2002.
- The highest turnover during the 1st quarter of this year was in shares of
Islandsbanki, just over ISK 20 billion. Almost 77% of equity turnover can be
attributed to the ten most-traded shares. The turnover figures include sales of
the national treasury's holding of 36.59% in Bunadarbanki Islands, which was
sold for just under ISK 9.7 billion, and the treasury's 35.8% holding in
Landsbanki Islands, which sold for just over ISK 9.5 billion.
- Equity turnover - Top 10
| Turnover ISK billion | % of total | Accumulated % | Price (1) | ||
| 31/12/02 | 31/3/03 | ||||
| Islandsbanki hf. | 20,3 | 17,4% | 17,4% | 4,59 | 5,05 |
| Bunadarbanki Islands hf. | 15,1 | 13,0% | 30,4% | 4,48 | 5,35 |
| Landsbanki Islands hf. | 14,5 | 12,5% | 42,8% | 3,55 | 4,09 |
| Kaupthing Bank hf. | 7,6 | 6,5% | 49,3% | 128,12 | 152,00 |
| Vatryggingafelag Islands hf. | 7,4 | 6,3% | 55,6% | 22,71 | 26,00 |
| Fjarfestingarf. Straumur hf. | 7,0 | 6,0% | 61,6% | 2,96 | 3,16 |
| Pharmaco hf. | 5,4 | 4,6% | 66,2% | 74,00 | 80,00 |
| Eimskip Holding | 4,5 | 3,8% | 70,1% | 6,21 | 6,45 |
| Ker hf. | 4,2 | 3,6% | 73,7% | 11,90 | 11,90 |
| Baugur Group hf. | 3,4 | 2,9% | 76,6% | 10,90 | 10,30 |
(1) Price as of 31 December 2002, adjusted for splits and dividends in the 1st quarter of 2003.
- The ICEX-15 Index closed at 1,419.4 points, which is a 5.0% rise from the beginning of the year. It has risen 8.3% during the past 12 months. The ICEX Main-List Index rose by 3.7% during the 1st quarter and by 12.6% during the past 12 months. The ICEX Growth-List Index, on the other hand, decreased by 1.2% during the first three months of the year, bringing its decrease over the past 12 months to 6.2%.
- Seven of the ten sector indices rose during the 1st quarter. The Finance and
Insurance Index rose most, by 9.6%, followed by the Pharmaceutical Index
which increased by 7.5%. The greatest decreases were in the Services and
Commerce Index, a drop of 5.2%, and in Fisheries, which dropped 3.2%.
- Development of sectoral indices - January to March 2003
| Indices | Change | % of market value |
| 1Finance and insurance | 9,6% | 32,0% |
| 2Fisheries | -3,2% | 14,4% |
| 3Information technology | -1,1% | 10,6% |
| 4Pharmaceutical | 7,5% | 9,2% |
| 5Industry and manufacturing | 1,1% | 8,2% |
| 6Services and commerce | -5,2% | 4,6% |
| 7Oil distribution | 3,8% | 5,6% |
| 8Equity funds and investment companies | 0,0% | 5,8% |
| 9Transport | 3,4% | 8,3% |
| 10 Building and construction | 1,1% | 1,3% |
| 100,0% |
- Members' share in equity turnover - Top 5
Percentage of volume by market value
| Total | On-exchange |
| Islandsbanki 25,7% | Kaupthing Bank 29,8% |
| Kaupthing Bank 25,0% | Islandsbanki 19,5% |
| Landsbanki Islands 22,5% | Bunadarbanki Islands 17,9% |
| Bunadarbanki Islands 20,6% | Landsbanki Islands 14,9% |
| Verdbrefastofan 1,4% | Sparisjodur Hafnarfjardar 4,3% |
Bond Market
- The total turnover of bonds and bills during the 1st quarter amounted to ISK 263.6 billion, which is a 64% increase over the 1st quarter last year (ISK 160.8 billion).
- Turnover in this quarter was the highest ever; the previous turnover record of ISK 243.7 billion was set in the third quarter of last year.
- On-exchange trading accounted for 64.7% of turnover during the quarter as compared to 62.8% in the previous year. Bond Market
- The most-traded bond was housing bond IBH 41 0315. Its turnover amounted to just over ISK 45 billion. During the quarter around 4/5 of the entire bond turnover was accounted for by the ten most-traded bonds. The yield on long-term indexed bonds in general decreased by around 0.2 percentage points during the first three months of this year.
