Press releases 2003

8 December 2003

Monthly Market Report for November 2003

Strong start for SETSmm; spreads narrow by 40% on average

The first full month of trading on SETSmm™, the London Stock Exchange’s new hybrid trading service, was completed in November.  The average number of trades per day was 9,841, up 65 per cent on an average of 5,978 trades per day in October 2003.  The average daily value represented by these trades was £383 million.  The average spreads for FTSE 250 stocks have improved by 40 per cent since the start of the market on 3 November, from 178 basis points in October 2003 to 107 basis points in November 2003.

The number of trades on SETS, the Exchange’s electronic order book also increased, to 2.8 million in November 2003, a rise of 18 per cent on the number of trades in November 2002.  The value traded on SETS during the month was £62.9 billion, up from £58.4 billion in November 2002.  The average daily number of trades on SETS was 140,674, up from 113,122 in November 2002.

The total number of equity trades on the Exchange was 4.64 million in November 2003.  This is down one per cent from a total of 4.68 million equity trades in November 2002.  The total value of shares traded in November 2003 was £316.3 billion, down from £361.7 billion in November 2002. 

The number of UK equity trades on the market was up 13 per cent to 3.91 million trades, compared with 3.46 million trades in November 2002.  There were 20 business days in November 2003 compared with 21 days in November 2002.

The number of trades in the covered warrant market increased to 4,268 trades in November 2003, compared with 766 trades in November 2002, the first full month of trading for the market.  The value of these trades was £35 million, compared with £2.2 million in November 2002.

On the primary market, there were 18 new issues during November 2003, ten of which were IPOs: two on the UK Main Market, one international company on the Main Market and seven on AIM, raising £384.7 million between them.   This compares with 13 new issues, of which 2 were IPOs, in November 2002.

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