Tough March for the NZX as share trading falls

Some indicators of activity were up on the New Zealand sharemarket last month, but other key measures continued to slip as global recession continued to squeeze the economy.

Figures out from NZX today showed the total value traded in March was $1.85 billion, down 18 per cent from a year earlier. The daily average value traded fell 29 per cent to $84 million.

But the total number of trades was up, rising 12 per cent to 46,472 although daily average number of trades was down 4 per cent to 2112.

Last year Easter fell in March but is in April this year, possibly explaining some of the discrepancy between total figures and daily averages.

Capital-raising took a big step up during March, with new equity of $133.7m taking the total for the year to $140.8m. New debt raised of $1.185b in March took the total for the year to $1.21b.

The number of NZX market data terminals was down 16 per cent from a year ago and down 8 per cent so far this year to 9242.

For the March quarter the total value traded was down 29 per cent from a year earlier to $5.135b, while the total number of trades fell 14 per cent to 116,688.

The NZX-50 index dropped 5 per cent in the first three months and was 25 per cent down from a year earlier.

- NZPA