NZX cash market trades rise 45% in January   4 Feb 2016

NZX cash market trades rise 45% in January

By Jonathan Underhill

Feb. 4 (BusinessDesk) - Cash market trades on the NZX jumped 45 percent in January from a year earlier, dominated by equity transactions, while the value of stock trading fell 1.1 percent, the stock exchange operator's monthly metrics show.

Total trades rose to 126,098 last month, of which 123,926 were equities, while the value of trading fell to $2.1 billion. Debt trades were just 2,172 which was still up 47.5 percent from January 2015, and the value of debt securities traded rose 67 percent to $100 million.

Trading tends to be subdued in January, which coincides with summer holidays.The total average value traded rose 6.1 percent to $114 million from the same month last year but down from an average $159 million in December.

The market value of all equity listed on the NZX rose 8.2 percent to $108 billion in January from a year earlier, equivalent to 44 percent of gross domestic product. The value of debt securities jumped 50 percent to $19.8 billion, or 8.1 percent of GDP.

The NZX debt market expanded last November after the New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency listed all six existing series of its bonds, representing a total $5.56 billion.

Among NZX's other business units, SuperLife's funds under management rose about 12 percent to $1.4 billion, while Smartshares FUM jumped 187 percent to $1.5 billion, mainly reflecting an increase from SuperLife funds.

In soft commodities, lots traded rose 26 percent to 11,652 while open interest soared 236 percent to 37,931. Tonnage of grain traded fell 0.2 percent to 299,247 tonnes in the season to date, NZX said.

(BusinessDesk)

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