London Stock Exchange: Monthly Market Report For April 2003 - Number Of SETS Trades Continues To Rise

The number of trades on SETS^™, the London Stock Exchange's electronic order book, increased to 2.49 million in April 2003, 55 per cent higher than the 1.61 million trades in April 2002. The value traded on SETS decreased by eight per cent to £52.8 billion in April 2003, down from £57.2 billion in April 2002.

The average daily number of trades on SETS was 63 per cent higher at 124,450, up from 76,552 in April 2002. SETS achieved a 64.8 per cent share of eligible trades by value in April 2003, compared with 59.3 per cent in April 2002.

The total number of UK and international trades on the Exchange in April 2003 was 4.29 million, up from 4.18 million in April 2002. There were 20 business days in April 2003 compared with 21 in April 2002.

A year on year decline in the number of international trades to 800,450 in April 2003, down from 1.21 million trades in April 2002, was offset by a 17 per cent increase in the number of UK trades to 3.49 million, compared with 2.97 million in April 2002.

On the primary market there were 16 new issues during April 2003, 6 of which were IPOs - 3 on the Main Market and 3 on AIM, raising £66.6 million. This compares with 12 IPOs in April 2002 - 7 on the Main Market and 5 on AIM