- some 7,200 liquid European stocks (as defined by CESR including 1,200 UK main market)
- almost 300 PLUS Quoted and AIM shares
- raised £25 million new capital
- achieved Recognised Investment Exchange status
- installed the new OMX trading platform
The new platform went live on November 5 with immediate impact. Trading activity on PLUS leapt 220% in November (from October) to 206,442 bargains worth some £1.6 billion. Trading value was up 300% by comparison to October ’07 and volumes were up 250% as against November ’06.
Investment firms can now trade all London-listed shares via the PLUS platform, including the FTSE 100. The heaviest traded stocks on PLUS in November – mirroring heavily-traded stocks on other markets - were those in the banking sector including Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Northern Rock. In Northern Rock, trading on PLUS reached a daily peak of 34% of all on-exchange trades taking place in the UK.
During the month of November, one-quarter of all daily UK retail trading activity took place on PLUS. Trading activity has continued to rise since month-end, hitting a daily peak of 15,428 trades in December. PLUS continues to attract one-third of trades in those AIM stocks dual-trading on its market, and over 40% of trades in constituents of the FTSE Fledgling index.
Business Development Director Cyril Théret said: ”This expansion has repositioned PLUS Markets, enabling it to provide a competitive alternative in UK securities trading coupled with access to European stocks for a broader service offering. On the basis of our November trading figures, PLUS is already the fourth largest stock exchange in Europe, by negotiated trades.* Our ambition is to become a deep pool of small and mid-cap liquidity in Europe and the arrival of continental European stocks on our platform before Christmas takes us another step further towards that goal.”
*PLUS November no. of trades against Federation of European Securities Exchanges Monthly Statistics, October 2007, Domestic Equity Trading
Background
PLUS Markets is an independent stock exchange in London, with “Recognised Investment Exchange” status, and classed as a Market Operator under MiFID. Its offering includes the full range of stock exchange activities, namely: trading execution, the provision of proprietary market data and listing/quotation destinations.
Month |
Bargains |
Trade
value |
Number
of shares |
July 07 |
69,373 |
£452.35
m |
589.94 m |
August 07 |
63,407 |
£403.33 m |
541.33 m |
September 07 |
52,310 |
£ 353.81 m |
467.32 m |
October 07 |
64,311 |
£ 404.50 m |
537.76 m |
November
07 |
206,442 |
£1,613.69m |
948.43m |
(November 06 |
59,442 |
£311.39m |
929.20m) |
Total
(YTD NOV 07) |
860,184 |
£5,674.19m |
6,922.56m |