KEY POINTS:
As if there weren't enough worries about the size and viability of the sharemarket, the credit crunch has made the situation much more alarming.
The market's operating figures for last month, released this week, provided yet more ugly information about the local bourse. The value of turnover for the month at $1.33 billion was down 84 per cent on the same month last year.
The market's overall capitalisation at $46.58 billion, down 33 per cent on a year ago, is now just 26 per cent of GDP and in nominal terms is at its lowest level since April 2003. Adjust it for inflation, though, and the picture is even uglier, with the market cap at its lowest level since the early '90s. Let's hope Rob Cameron and his Capital Markets Taskforce can come up with something special to help turn this around.