London Stock Exchange Monthly Market Report For January 2003 - Total Number Of Trades Up 17 Percent - Continued SETS Growth In January

The total number of UK and international trades on the Exchange in January 2003 was 5.06 million, up 17 per cent from 4.33 million in January 2002. The total value of these trades was £325.9 billion, a 21 per cent decline over the corresponding period last year. The average daily number of UK and international trades increased to 230,167 trades compared with 196,766 in January 2002. There were 22 business days in both January 2002 and 2003.

The total number of UK trades on the London Stock Exchange increased to 3.91 million in January 2003, up 38 per cent compared with 2.83 million in January 2002. The value, however, decreased by three per cent to £148.7 billion, down from £152.8 billion in January 2002.

In January the number of trades on SETS™, the London Stock Exchange's electronic order book, increased to 2.88 million trades compared with 1.57 million in January 2002, a year on year increase of 83 per cent. The value traded on SETS increased by 14 per cent to £62.1 billion in 2003, from £54.5 billion in January 2002.

The average daily number of trades on SETS was 130,806, up from 71,547 in January 2002. SETS achieved a 66.9 per cent share of eligible trades in January 2003, compared with 60.9 per cent in January 2002.

On the primary market there were 14 new issues during January 2003, 4 of which were IPOs, 2 on the Main Market and 2 on AIM, raising £17 million between them. This compares with 6 IPOs in January 2002 - 3 on the Main Market, 3 on AIM, which raised £69 million.