Record turnover for ISE in first quarter

Dublin's ISEQ index hit a life time high during the first quarter of 2006 and continued to outperform most global stock markets.

The Irish Stock Exchange today reported a record quarter of equity turnover, with trading in equities in the first three months of the year up 24% to €33.4 billion. Average daily equity turnover rose to €522m from €430m the same time last year.

Daily transactions on the equity markets rose by 26% to 4,006 from 3,171 the same time last year. Companies traded on the ISE raised a total of €658m in the first quarter of 2006.

A statement from the ISE said that of the numbers of deals done in the first quarter of 2005, 55% were executed on the ISE Xetra electronic order-book with 45% done off the orderbook. It said this is the highest order book share of the market since the launch of Xetra in June 2000.

The ISEQ equity market continued to perform strongly against global markets in the first quarter and the more than 10% increase in the ISEQ Overall Index between December and March outperformed global indices such as the FTSE 100, the Nasdaq and the Dow Jones. The ISEQ Overall, Financial, Small Cap, General and ISEQ 20 indices all reached their life time highs in the first quarter.

Since its launch last year, the ISEQ 20 ETF has performed well and assets under management now exceed €37m.

A total of 149 new funds and sub funds listed during the first three months of 2006. These came from a number of areas, but were mainly from Ireland an the Cayman Islands and included some key names such as Lazard, Lyxor, Janus, Lehman Brothers and Legal & General.

The ISE said it continues to remain as the number one location worldwide for the listing of investment funds and added that it expects to maintain a steady volume of new listings throughout the year.