See the report: www.ose.no/pdf/2q01.pdf
The changes are largely due to increased revenues this year compared with the same period last year. Global stockmarkets have been under pressure throughout the first half-year due to lower activity in both the new-issue and secondary market and falling prices on a number of quoted securities, particularly in the technology field. Oslo Børs is less exposed to this segment than many other stock exchanges, which is one reason why Oslo Børs has managed fairly creditably so far in 2001 and can point to higher activity in the secondary market than in the same period last year. The focus on sales of financial market data continues to bear fruit with an increase of 21% over last year's second quarter and as much as 31% for the first half-year as a whole.
Oslo Børs is currently making extensive investments on the IT front, including the introduction of the trading system SAXESS, while concurrently running the old ASTS system. This is pushing up costs somewhat. SAXESS will go live in the first quarter of 2002. The board of Oslo Børs Holding ASA will review this report on 21 August 2001.
Oslo Børs is satisfied with the development so far in 2001. However, the situation in the global security markets, creates some uncertainty about the development in the near future, Sven Arild Andersen said.
