London Stock Exchange Monthly Market Report For August 2003 - Further Growth In SETS Trades In August

The number of trades on SETS^™, the London Stock Exchange's electronic order book, increased to 2.35 million in August 2003, 15 per cent higher than the 2.03 million trades in August 2002. The value traded on SETS during the month was £52 billion, up from £50 billion in August 2002.

The average daily number of trades on SETS was 117,254, up 21 per cent from 96,848 in August 2002. SETS achieved a 60.6 per cent share of eligible trades by value in August 2003, compared with 63.7 per cent in August 2002. There were 20 business days in August 2003 compared with 21 in August 2002.

The total number of equity trades on the Exchange was 4.13 million in August 2003. This represents a marginal increase on August 2002, during which there was a total of 4.11 million equity trades. The total value of shares traded this August was £270.1 billion, down from £305.9 billion last August.

In August 2003, there were 775,519 retail trades representing 18.8 per cent of all trading on the Exchange. This was up on July 2003, when retail trading represented 17.4 per cent of all trading. These figures are calculated on declarations from participating member firms.

On the primary market, there were 15 new issues during August 2003, seven of which were IPOs on AIM, raising £12.8 million between them. This compares with 21 new issues, of which 4 were IPOs, in August 2002.