Press releases 2000

21 December 2000

RECORD TRADING YEAR FOR LONDON'S EQUITY MARKETS

The London Stock Exchange has confirmed its status as Europe's leading financial centre, with record volumes traded on its international and domestic markets during 2000, as well as a highly active new issues market.

Commenting on a year that saw domestic business increase by 35 per cent by value, international business increase over 40 per cent by value and over 330 new companies joining its markets, Martin Wheatley, Director of Business Development at the London Stock Exchange said:

"London has enjoyed extremely buoyant levels of trading and new issues in 2000. The continued growth of our international and domestic business, coming on top of last year's outstanding results, provides a positive reminder of the Exchange's strong competitive position, both in the UK and internationally.

"We will continue to build on this excellent foundation by developing our service offerings, product range and geographical reach to ensure we provide efficient markets for all of our customers: whether domestic or international, wholesale or retail, issuers, intermediaries or investors".

UK Equity Market

On the domestic market, the total value of UK equities traded during 2000 rose to nearly 1,900 billion - up 35 per cent from 1,400 billion in 1999. The total number of UK bargains also increased to a record 29 million (averaging over 115,000 per day) - up 40 per cent from 21 million in 1999.

International Market

Trading in international equities also reached record highs. At the end of 2000, turnover value totalled 3,400 billion - up 40 per cent from 2,420 billion in 1999. The number of bargains increased to an impressive 11 million (1999: 7.5 million).

The number of international companies listed on the main market is now 500, which come from 60 different countries. This year's international listings included Flag Telecom, Sun Life Financial Services, Syngenta AG, Turbo Genset, Zurich Financial Services and, just this week, Thales.

AIM

AIM saw strong growth this year. The value of trading grew to a record 14 billion - a 150 per cent increase from the 1999 value of 5.3 billion. The number of bargains rose to 2 million - up 140 per cent from 0.8 million in 1999.

There are now 520 companies on AIM, an increase of 50 per cent on last year's total of 347.

techMARK

71 companies joined techMARK in 2000, taking the total number of techMARK companies to 246. Trading in techMARK stocks totalled almost 10 million trades with a value of 750 billion.

New companies

The total number of companies admitted to the Exchange's markets is now just under 3,000, an increase of over 6 per cent on last year.

330 new companies joined our markets in 2000, with 300 of these being admitted as IPOs. Over 160 IPOs were on AIM and a further 110 on the main market, raising 11 billion between them.

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