Securities registered with the Norwegian Central Securities Depository, Q1 2007

The high activity in the primary market by the end of last year, continued into 2007. Measured by market value, the companies registered with the Norwegian Central Securities Depositary issued new shares for NOK 40.8 billion the first quarter of 2007.

More than 30 per cent of the new shares were issued by foreign companies, while nearly 17 per cent were issued by Norwegian companies in real estate activities. Nearly 70 per cent of the share issues were carried out in unquoted companies. The activity in the primary marked for bonds and short-terms securities was also high in the first quarter. For bonds the issues amounted to NOK 67.4 billion and for short-term securities the issues amounted to NOK 56.2 billion. Considerable redemptions in these securities through the first quarter implied a net redemption of bonds amounting to NOK 22.5 billion and of short-term securities amounting to NOK 1.3 billion

Stock market in progress

Measured in market value, the stocks of shares registered with the Norwegian Central Securities Depositary, increased with 5.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2007, and amounted to NOK 2331.9 billion. The main reason for this growth was higher share prices on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE). The OSE All-share Index rose by 3.8 per cent in the first quarter. Foreigners increased their ownership by 0.7 per cent in the period, and now own 37.8 per cent of the stocks of shares registered in the Norwegian Central Securities Depositary. The stocks of shares are, by the end of the first quarter, divided into NOK 1990.7 billion in quoted shares and NOK 341.2 billion in unquoted shares.

The stocks of interest bearing securities registered with the Norwegian Central Securities Depositary were reduced slightly in the first quarter of 2007. The stock of bonds was reduced by 3.9 per cent, to NOK 724.1 billion, and the stock of short-term securities was reduced by NOK 1.7 per cent, to NOK 98.1 billion.