Sharp Increase In Trading Volumes During First Month Of Extended Trading Hours

On October 1 this year trading hours on the OM Stockholm Exchange and the OM London Exchange were extended by one hour. Equity and derivatives trading now opens at CET 9.30 am instead of 10 am, and trading now closes at the later time of CET 5.30 pm as opposed to 5 pm. During the first month of extended trading hours, turnover in both equity and derivatives trade reached record high levels. Average daily turnover in equity trades amounted to SEK 13.0 billion. This can be compared to the previous record month - August 1999 - when equity turnover averaged SEK 9.8 billion per day. On average, within the first half hour of trading, shares with a value of SEK 0.9 billion were traded daily, and during the last half hour of trading, shares valued at SEK 1.1 billion were traded daily. Derivatives turnover also reached record high levels in October. In Swedish options and futures trading an average of 240,094 equity and fixed income based contracts were traded on a daily basis. This can be compared to the last record month - August 1998 - when an average of 236,356 contracts was traded on a daily basis.