Mr Davies made his comments as the BISX reported its half-yearly performance report on Monday, which showed that that the BISX All Share Index closed up by 6% in the six months to the end of June 2007, with volumes moderately higher than in the same period last year.

Commenting on the performance of the BISX market, Mr. Davies, stated:

"The overall strength of our market is apparent by the positive incremental performance we have seen over the last several months. We continue to see an expansion of our market, with the inflow of more investment dollars and the increase in new investors, which is something we hope will continue.

"What has to happen now is the addition and or the creation of additional investment products to satisfy what is obviously a pent-up demand for quality securities investments. We at BISX intend to do our part to ensure that Bahamian investors have access to as wide a portfolio of securities to choose from as possible. With the eventual introduction of Government securities listings and trading, combined with the addition of suitable Bahamian issued securities from current listed and unlisted companies, we expect to present a well balanced market consisting of practically all eligible securities in The Bahamas.

"We have been in operation now almost 8 years and our market has performed admirably, I am particularly pleased about how we have persevered over this time frame. We are now at the position where the BISX All Share Index is in reach of the 2,000 point mark, which would be a major accomplishment for our market, also, we are now poised to bring the majority of eligible local tradable securities under the regulatory regime of the Exchange. The performance of our market speaks for itself and bodes well for BISX, but more importantly, it gives investors confidence to actively engage the market to facilitate their long term saving and investing needs, and to me that's most important."

For the six month period ending 29 June, 2007 the BISX All Share Index closed up 138.94 points or 6.02% for the period closing at 1,815.13. By comparison for the six month period ending 30 June, 2006, the BISX All Share Index posted an increase of 168.4 or 12.5% to close at 1,519.11. Although the market grew at a slower rate when compared to the period from last year, the index realized a gain of 296.02 points over 2006 for the same period.

The BISX All Share Index is a market capitalization weighted index comprised of all primary listings actively traded on the Exchange. As at 29 June, 2007 the market was comprised of 19 listings with a market capitalization of $3.49 billion.

For the period trading volumes increased when compared with the same period of 2006, the value of shares however decreased when compared to the same period last year. Trading volume for the period for all issuers listed on BISX was 2,953,871 shares which totaled a trade value of $13,160,562.49. This represents an increase in traded volume of 22,727 shares or 0.78% when compared to the half year totals for 2006 of 2,931,144, the value of shares traded on BISX decreased by $2,320,009.68 or 17.63% when compared to the half year of 2006 where the trade value was $15,480,572.17.