(January 26 – 11:00 ET) – The Investment Dealers Association has released its third quarter market activity report for the July-September 2000 period for equity new issues and trading.

Although trading on Canada’s three major exchanges slumped to $214 billion in the July-September period, a 15% quarter-to-quarter drop, total trading still remained over 70% higher than the same period 1999.

The Toronto Stock Exchange retained its status as the leading gainer among major North American equity exchanges in the year to September.

After CDNX posted strong first-quarter results exceeding $9 billion, trading slumped to $3 billion in the second quarter and to just over $2 billion in the three months to September.

Equity financings fell for the second straight quarter, by close to 20% to about $3.4 billion in the July-September period.

For the first nine months this year, IPOs exceeded $4 billion for an increase of about 16% year-to-year.

For the nine months to September, total U.S. IPO issuance by Canadian firms topped $3 billion, or more than three times the level in all of 1999. High-technology companies accounted for approximately 80% of the total.

Purchases by non-residents in the January-September period 2000 topped $43 billion, nearly four times more than the same period 1999. The strong buying partly reflected a switch out of debt holdings, with an unprecedented $15 billion net sales of bonds by non-residents in the nine months to September last year.

The complete report is available on the IDA’s web site at www.ida.ca
-IE Staff