The first half of 2004 was one of the best first six months ever in the Norwegian market. The increase in share value seen this year has only been bettered twice in the last 10 years - in 1997 and 1999. The Oslo Børs Benchmark Index closed the first six months at 204.54, just 10 % off the all-time high of 225.04 reached on 14 September 2000. High oil prices, low interest rates, improving global economic conditions, steady improvement in corporate earnings and increased foreign interest in the Oslo market are among the reasons for this sound performance. The Benchmark Index has gained almost 110% since the low point reached on 25 February 2003, which represents a very strong performance relative to stock exchanges around the world.
The sustained positive tone in the Oslo market is also reflected in a healthy number of companies being admitted to listing on Oslo Børs. Over the first six months 13 companies joined the market, which is the highest number of new listings over the first six months of any year since 1998. Oslo Børs expects to see a good number of new companies admitted to listing over the second half of the year.
Weaker conditions internationally
While the first six months of 2004 saw Oslo Børs continue the positive trend established in 2003, a number of the major stock markets in both Europe and the USA saw share prices flatten out. The Stockholm market was one of the best performers with an increase of 10%, but the stock exchanges of London, Frankfurt and New York saw only a marginal change over the first six months. However the Tokyo market produced an improvement of around 10% thanks to strong growth in the Japanese economy.
Increased activity by foreign investors
Foreign investors account for 60-70% of daily trading in the Norwegian stock market, and this has been the case for some considerable time. There is also a clear trend for foreign investment firms to handle an increasing proportion of trading in the Oslo market. While foreign firms had a 9.5% share of trading in the first half of 2003, figures for the first half of 2004 show that their market share was a strong 22 %. Oslo Børs currently has 40 active member firms, of which 16 are ‘remote’ members (foreign investment firms operating from offices outside Norway).
