Irish Stock Exchange Publishes End-Of-Year Results

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

09 February 2009

The Irish Stock Exchange has released its end-of-year results, which highlight significant increases in trading volumes, though as with many other European bourses, the Exchange's market capitalization decreased significantly during 2008.

Trading volumes in equities quoted on the Exchange reached a record level in 2008, with the number of individual trades increasing by some 46% to more than 2.5 million. The sharp rise in trading volumes is reflected in the average daily trading figures which show an increase from 6,795 per day in 2007 to just under 10,000 in 2008. Key factors behind the increase include increased volatility on equity markets generally together with the Exchange’s competitive pricing structure and the increasing internationalization of the Exchange’s member firms.

However as the market capitalisation of many companies listed on the Exchange declined from EUR93.5bn in 2007 to EUR32.4bn at the end of 2008, the value of trading on the equity market fell by just over 43% to EUR112bn.

The bond market however improved markedly: turnover on the government bond market fell slightly from EUR52bn to EUR50.1bn while the value of bonds issued by the National Treasury Management Agency increased from EUR6bn to EUR11bn, increasing the market capitalization of government bonds from EUR31bn to EUR42.5bn.

While the global credit crisis has resulted in a downturn in demand for new debt and fund listings in 2008, the Exchange has performed comparatively well against its competitors. New fund and sub fund listings in 2008 were 429 bringing the total number of funds listed on the Exchange to 3,814. New debt listings amounted to 4,381 during the year and the total of debt tranches now listed on the Exchange has grown to 24,698 at December 31, 2008.

Four new member firms joined the Exchange in 2008, increasing the total number of Exchange member firms to 36. Collins Stewart Europe, a London based investment bank and securities house, joined in May and Amsterdam based Flow Traders, a leading liquidity provider, joined in September. In addition two new primary dealers in Irish government bonds were admitted, BNP Paribas and Dresdner Kleinwort.

Commenting on the 2008 results and the outlook for 2009, Deirdre Somers, Chief Executive of the Irish Stock Exchange said: “2008 was an exceptionally challenging year for markets everywhere, including Ireland. The year did see some significant developments for the Exchange, including progress on regulatory reform and the introduction of an innovative transparency service for asset backed securities, which has been well received at a time when communication with investors has never been more important. Our priorities for 2009 will be to continue to invest in our strategic infrastructure and to ensure that the establishment of the new supervisory entity – which will provide total clarity between the ISE’s supervisory role and the broader promotion and management of the Exchange – contributes to restoring confidence in the Irish market.”

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