Equity trading in July 2001 on the London Stock Exchange saw £428 billion of business spread across 3.97 million bargains. By volume, this represented an increase of 36 per cent over July last year; by value, a 4 per cent decrease.
Vodafone was the most heavily traded stock with 11 billion shares changing hands over the course of the month. By sector, telecommunication services represented the greatest proportion of business, with 235,225 bargains worth over £20 billion being traded.
The average value of equity traded on a daily basis on the Exchange was £19.5 billion, compared with an average value traded of £21.3 billion for July 2000. The average daily volume traded for July was 180,684 bargains, compared with 139,412 for July 2000.
Year To Date Equity Trading
Equity trading activity in the year to date was higher than for the same period last year, in terms of both volume (up 11.6 per cent) and value traded (up 6 per cent).
SETS Order Book Trading
The amount of equity trading taking place on the SETS Order Book has increased significantly compared with July last year. The Order Book accounted for 1.3m bargains to the value of £51.4bn in July 2001- up 98 per cent by volume over July 2000 and 27 per cent by value. The year to date figures show an increase of 63 per cent by volume and 23 per cent by value over last year.
Primary Markets
In July 2001, 27 new companies joined the London Stock Exchange's markets, 17 of which were admitted to AIM. AIM continues to attract more new entrants than the rest of the market combined, with the total for AIM in 2001 now standing at 100.
While the number of companies coming to market is lower than last year, the number of companies raising capital remains strong. Across the market in July, companies raised a total of £3.0 billion, bringing the year to date total to £22.3 billion.
The split between new issue capital raising and further issue capital raising was 83:17 for July and is now 40:60 for the year to date. These ratios reflect the new issue in July 2001 of Friends Provident (£2.2 billion) and further issues by Vodafone (£3.5 billion) and BT (£5.9 billion) in May this year.
