PLUS Posts 112% Increase In December Trades - New Stock Exchange Continues Trading Gains Momentum

PLUS Markets Group, the new stock exchange for London, ended 2008 with trading activity up against last year’s trading figures. In December 2008, PLUS posted 439,603 bargains, a 112% increase in trades year over December 2007. The total number of shares traded was up 137% at 2.42 billion, while trade value rose 42% at £2.55 billion over the period.

December was a strong month for the exchange with PLUS maintaining more than half the trades in 731 UK small and mid-cap shares. This number included over 500 Official List Fledgling and Small Cap stocks, and AIM securities dual-trading on PLUS, as well as its own PLUS-quoted securities. In addition to a commanding small and mid-cap position, PLUS maintains steady market share in the large-caps by trade value with December highlights as follows:

On-exchange trades (December 2008)*

Throughout 2008, PLUS has been building market share across all sectors, as evidenced by the Thomson Reuters November MiFID market share report^** where PLUS again ranked 3rd by volume (shares) with over 4% of on-exchange trading in all UK and Irish equities.^***

“PLUS trading activity in 2008 ended on a high note with December trades up year on year. 2009 will not be without its challenges, but we’re looking forward to offering our members new liquidity possibilities through offerings such as PLUS-Europe for pan-European equity trading, our PLUS-pool dark pool for small and mid-caps and PLUS-HQ, our new hittable quote board” said Business Development Director Cyril Theret.

^* Taking into account LSE numbers only
^** link: http://about.reuters.com/productinfo/compliance/mifid/material/MarketShareReport_November2008.pdf
^*** Excluding Markit Boat, which is off-exchange OTC trade reporting