Press releases 2002

11 January 2002

 

MONTHLY MARKET REPORT FOR DECEMBER 2001

 

• DECEMBER UK TRADING VOLUMES UP 22 % YEAR ON YEAR

   

• 17 IPOs ON AIM IN DECEMBER

   

In December, trading volumes across the London Stock Exchange's markets continued their strong record of growth:

 

• 40.8 billion UK shares were traded in December, up 22 per cent on December 2000.
• The number of trades in UK shares was also up 22 per cent on the same month in 2000, rising from 1.89 million trades to 2.29 million trades.

The success of SETS^TM, the Exchange's electronic order book that has underpinned the growth in trades over the course of 2001, continued in December with 1.3 million trades against 0.7 million trades for the same month in 2000. Year on year, this represented an 89 per cent increase.

 

There were 36 new issues during December 2001, 26 of which were IPOs. A total of 304 companies were admitted to the Exchange's markets in 2001, including 155 IPOs. Although lower in absolute numbers than the exceptional levels of 2000 (487 new admissions in 2000), these represented 60 per cent of the total western European IPO market.

 

The IPO market has been driven by the growth of AIM^TM, the Exchange's global market for smaller and growing companies, which attracted 17 IPOs in December 2001, raising 53m between them. With 94 IPOs in 2001, AIM alone accounted for approximately one third of western European IPOs, bucking the global trend of slower IPO markets.

 

On 14 December 2001, 5 IPOs were admitted to the AIM market - a record for one day. AIM is firmly established as a success story in the UK and the Exchange is increasingly promoting AIM overseas, with further interest from companies and advisors in Europe, Israel, Canada and Australia. By the end of 2001, the total number of companies on AIM stood at 629 including 42 international companies.

 

- ends -

 

For further information, please contact:

 

Tiffany Hardie-Evans	Press Office +44 (0)20 7797 1222
	press@londonstockexchange.com

Notes to editors:

 

• About the London Stock Exchange:
  The London Stock Exchange is one of the world's leading equity exchanges and a leading provider of services that facilitate the raising of capital and the trading of shares.
  
  The London Stock Exchange is the most international equities exchange by trading in the world and Europe's largest pool of liquidity. By the end of 2001, the market capitalisation of UK and international companies on its markets amounted to 4.1 trillion, with over 5.6 trillion of business transacted over the year. The London Stock Exchange is a Recognised Investment Exchange (RIE) under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and is supervised by the Financial Services Authority.

   

• SETS - the electronic order book.
  It is now over four years since the launch of SETS and the service continues to go from strength to strength. Overall, the market is benefiting from tighter spreads, greater liquidity and lower execution costs. Usage of SETS continues to grow, as shown by recent record increases in the number of orders entered, the number of firms using the order book and order book share of business. For more information see our publication: "SETS - four years on" available at www.londonstockexchange.com/trading/pdfs/sets4years.pdf

   

• Indices are calculated and managed by FTSE Group, a world-leader in the creation and management of global equity indices. The FTSE Group is jointly owned by the London Stock Exchange and the Financial Times, but operates as a wholly autonomous company. For information about the company or any FTSE indices, please contact media@ftse.com

   

• IPO - when a new company joins our market raising money. This excludes transfers and introductions (a company that joins a market without raising money).

   

• The Exchange's main market and AIM accounted for 60 per cent of all IPOs in western Europe during the period 1 January - 30 November 2001. Source: London Stock Exchange, Thomson Financial and individual exchange websites.

   

• LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE CREST AND LOGO, SETS and AIM are trademarks of London Stock Exchange plc. FTSE is a trademark of London Stock Exchange plc and the Financial Times Limited and is used by FTSE International Limited under licence.

   

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE

 

MONTHLY FACTSHEET FIGURES

 

December 2001

 

	2001		2000
DOMESTIC EQUITY TRADING	Month	Year to date	Month	Year to date
Equity Trading Value (m)	119,351	1,904,844	128,959	1,895,534
Number of Equity Trades	2,294,426	32,130,988	1,885,601	29,427,308
INTERNATIONAL EQUITY TRADING
Equity Trading Value (m)	217,675	3,676,342	246,931	3,519,722
Number of Equity Trades	1,364,847	17,454,095	975,308	11,300,814
	December 2001		December 2000
DOMESTIC MARKET CAPITALISATION bn	1,535		1,812
TOTAL NUMBER OF COMPANIES	2,891		2,929
UK list	1,809		1,904
Foreign	453		501
AIM	629		524
techMARK	243		246
	2001		2000
MONEY RAISED m	Month	Year to date	Month	Year to date
UK & AIM New Issues Equity	195	6,587	620	12,798
Further, Rights and Other	1,611	16,287	673	15,653
Bonds and Warrants	8,316	83,342	12,261	100,556
Int. New Issues Equity	289	3,581	121	5,481
Further, Rights and Other	3,135	4,902	296	4,898
Bonds and Warrants	4,418	81,344	7,139	87,270
COMPANIES ADMITTED IN MONTH	36	304	45	487

INDICES PERFORMANCE	Month Close	Mvt in Month	Mvt in Year
FTSE100	5,217.4	+0%	-16%
FTSE All Share	2,523.9	+0%	-15%
FTSE techMARK 100	1,472.7	-2%	-43%
FTSE AIM	897.8	+0%	-38%