The Nordic And Baltic Countries Become A Single Securities Market

As of today, securities from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Estonia and Latvia can be bought and sold through one and the same trading system. This is a consequence of the implementation of the SAXESS trading system in OMX Exchanges' marketplaces in Finland, Estonia and Latvia. Following this development, the stock exchanges of the Nordic and Baltic countries now represent a single market for securities trading in practical terms.

NOREX, the stock exchange alliance, is the first stock exchange alliance in the world to implement a common system for share trading and to harmonise the trading and membership rules and regulations for exchanges in different countries. Today's announcement sees the original intention to create a common and fully integrated marketplace for financial instruments across the Nordic region become a reality.

"We are very pleased to have realised the vision of the NOREX Alliance to create a common marketplace and by so realising significant added value for market players. We will now focus on developing the Nordic and Baltic securities markets and improving their efficiency further. NOREX represents a unified regional securities market to stand alongside the other important markets in the European arena", explains Jukka Ruuska, Chairman of NOREX.

President and CEO Hans-Ole Jochumsen comments: “The vision from 1997 of a common Nordic securities market has now been realised. The extension of NOREX shows that we have pursued the right strategy, which has been a prerequisite for the extremely positive development of the Danish equity market.”

The shares of 876 companies in total are quoted on the seven NOREX exchanges. The total market capitalisation of all the companies listed on the NOREX exchanges amounted to approximately EUR 561 billion at the close of August 2004.

About NOREX
NOREX is a strategic alliance between the Nordic stock exchanges. The NOREX Alliance is unique by being the first stock exchange alliance to implement a joint system for equity trading and harmonise rules and requirements between the exchanges with respect to trading and membership. NOREX was first established in June 1997 when the Stockholm Stock Exchange and the Copenhagen Stock Exchange signed a Letter of Intent on future collaboration. The Alliance consists of Copenhagen Stock Exchange, Iceland Stock Exchange, Oslo Børs and OMX Exchanges.
About OMX Exchanges
OMX consists of two divisions: OMX Exchanges and OMX Technology. OMX Exchanges owns and operates the stock exchanges in Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius as well as the central securities depositories in Finland, Estonia and Latvia. OMX acquired Vilnius Stock Exchange earlier this year, and Vilnius is expected to join NOREX and implement the SAXESS trading system in 2005.