The average daily number of trades on the London Stock Exchange in UK and international shares increased by 11 per cent from 176,786 in August 2001 to 195,538 in August 2002. The number of UK trades rose 21 per cent in August to 3.0 million trades, compared with 2.5 million trades in the same month in 2001. The value of these trades fell from £135.7 to £131.1 billion.
In August 47 per cent of all SETS business was netted for settlement (using new facilities introduced for SETS transactions in July). During the month, 24 firms used netting and saw an increase in trading efficiency through reducing the number of settlements by 98 per cent.
Settlement netting, combined with the other automated features used in SETS trading, now provides a highly efficient straight through processing function for the Exchange's customers.
There were 21 new issues during August 2002, 4 of which were IPOs. The IPOs were split between the Main Market (1) and AIM (3), raising £16.3 million between them. So far this year, to the end of July (the latest available figures), the Exchange has accounted for more than 75 per cent of all western European IPOs.
