The volume of trading in shares on the NZX climbed almost 42 per cent last year as investors renewed their interest in equities at the expense of listed debt securities.
The stock exchange reported 701,187 equity transactions in 2011 for a value of $27.4 billion, which was an improvement of 27 per cent in 2010 in dollar terms. That came at the expense of debt trading, which fell 14 per cent to 39,414, with an 11 per cent decline in value traded at $1.2 billion.
A flurry of new listings late in the year, including the partial float of online auction site Trade Me and the carve-out of Telecom's Chorus unit into a standalone listed company supported share trading, which surged 48 per cent in the month of December. The number of equity securities was flat at 171, though listed debt securities fell 7.8 per cent to 107 over the year.
Some $11.87 billion of new capital was raised on the stock exchange last year from 306 events, more than three times the $3.2 billion raised in 2010, with $10.83 billion raised in new equity. Issuers raised some $1.04 billion in new debt in 2011.
NZX equity market capitalisation slipped 0.3 per cent to $55.9 billion, or 27.4 per cent of gross domestic product, in the year, while debt market capitalisation edged down 0.1 per cent to $16 billion, or 7.8 per cent of GDP.
