London Stock Exchange: Monthly Market Report For June 2003 - Number Of Trades Continue To Rise

The number of trades on SETS, the London Stock Exchange's electronic order book, increased to 2.66 million in June 2003, 44 per cent higher than the 1.84 million trades in June 2002. The value traded on SETS increased by nine per cent to £58.5 billion in June 2003, up from £53.7 billion in June 2002. The average daily number of trades on SETS was 23 per cent higher at 126,466, up from 102,421 in June 2002.

The total number of equity trades on the Exchange in June 2003 was 4.69 million, up from 3.98 million in June 2002. The average daily number of trades was 223,115 in June 2003, up from 221,312 in June 2002, an increase of one per cent. The average daily value of these trades decreased from £22.8 billion in June 2002 to £15.0 billion in June 2003. There were 21 business days in June 2003 compared with 18 in June 2002.

On the primary market, there were 13 new issues during June 2003, four of which were IPOs: two on the Main Market (Sondex and Benfield Group) and two on AIM (Faroe Petroleum and African Eagle Resources), raising £143 million between them. This compares with 20 new issues, of which 13 were IPOs in June 2002.

The Exchange reported a record 2,878 trades on its covered warrants market in June 2003, 6.3 per cent higher than the previous record in March 2003, when there were 2,708 trades. The total value of these trades was £7.84 million. There are now 448 warrants available on the Exchange issued by Goldman Sachs International, JP Morgan, SG and TradingLab.