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Revenues totalled NOK 71.0 (52.9) million in the first quarter. The increase from last year’s first quarter was largely due to heavier trading in the equity market. Revenues from sales of financial market data are also up on the same period last year.
Shares and primary capital certificates worth NOK 240 (103) billion changed hands in the first quarter. The number of transactions in the equity market increased 137% compared to the same period last year. Activity in the first quarter of 2003 was historically very low. However, market interest in Norwegian shares is clearly increasing.
Activity in the business area Fixed Income Markets was slightly down on the same period last year. Trading in the derivatives market continues to show a positive trend compared with last year. The number of terminals with access to market data from Oslo Børs rose by about 3% in the quarter.
Total first-quarter operating expenses came to NOK 42.4 (40.4) million.
The Norwegian Competition Authority has based on complaints considered if it is necessary to intervene towards the prices the stock exchange charge for their products. The Competition Authority has by letter dated 20 April given their statement and concluded that they see no reason to intervene. In their letter, the Competition Authority states that they find the exchange’s pricing model suitable and gives a reasonable allocation of the expenses between the various market participants. It is furthermore indicated that the reduction in operating expenses is the main reason to the increase in operating profit since the privatization of the stock exchange in 2001, and that the fees the stock exchange is charging in spite of the lack of economies of scale which other larger markets benefit from, do not differ significantly from other European markets.
The bourse's revenues for 2004 will vary in step with activity levels, above all with trading in the equity market and the trend in sales of financial market data in terms of the number of terminals. Compared with 2003, Oslo Børs’s operating expenses for 2004 will be adversely affected by certain factors. These include depreciation of the Norwegian krone, wage regulation effective from 1 January 2004 and one-time items which reduced the bourse’s costs in 2003. Oslo Børs expects operating expenses for 2004 as a whole to run to just over NOK 170 million.
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