London Stock Exchange Monthly Market Report For May 2002 - Number Of UK Shares Traded Up 34% On May 2001 - Number Of Trades On Sets Up 48% On May 2001

The number of UK shares traded on the London Stock Exchange rose 34 per cent in May to 62.4 billion shares, compared with 46.4 billion shares in the same month in 2001. There were 22 trading days in May 2002 compared with 21 days in May 2001.

The total number of UK and international trades on the Exchange increased by 8 per cent in May 2002, up to 4.2 million trades compared with 3.9 million in May 2001. The average daily number of trades in UK and international shares increased by four per cent from 184,254 in May 2001 to 191,916 in May 2002.

The number of trades on SETSTM, the Exchange's electronic order book, grew 48 per cent in May 2002 to 1.72 million trades compared with 1.16 million in May 2001. The average daily number of trades rose 41 per cent from 55,338 in May 2001 to 78,123 in May 2002.

There were 30 new issues during May 2002, 19 of which were IPOs. The IPOs were split between AIM (13) and the main market (6), raising £1.4 billion between them.