Big fall in NZX June trades

The total value traded on NZX securities markets was 24 per cent lower in June than a year earlier, with the total number of trades falling 18 per cent, as the market continued to fall from a 19-month high in mid-April.

NZX today said the fall in total value traded to $1.72 billion came as liquidity conditions, both in this country and globally, remained challenging.

There were 41,866 total trades last month, while average daily trades were also down 18 per cent, to 1994, and the daily average value traded fell 24 per cent to $82 million.

The market's benchmark NZX-50 index ended June 6 per cent higher than a year ago but 6 per cent down for the year-to-date.

The total value traded on the debt securities markets was $133m, a rise of 3 per cent from May, although 2 per cent down from a year earlier.

The rise from the previous month was mainly due to a rise in the number of trades under $50,000, suggesting broader participation in the debt market, NZX said.

No new debt was raised in June leaving the year-to-date figure at $1.18b, while $35.5m of new equity was raised taking the equity raised so far in 2010 to $610m.

Real time data terminal numbers rose for the fourth month in a row to 7335 as onshore and offshore end users of market data, such as commercial and investment banks, continued to increase their focus on markets in this country and Asia Pacific, NZX said.

- NZPA