Trading volume on the Toronto Stock Exchange set an all time record in September with over 5.7 billion shares traded. The previous best month was 5.3 billion in February 2000.

The hottest trader, as usual, was Nortel Networks, which alone accounted for more than 919 million shares traded. The distant runner up was Bombardier, which moved 168.4 million shares in the month.

In the year to date, TSX volume is up 16.2% to 39.3 billion shares, compared with the same period in 2002. However, the total market cap traded is down about 5% to $463.2 billion, compared with a year ago.

Overall, the TSX’s total market cap is up 13.5% to $1,142.7 billion, this has been driven by a 20.1% rise in domestic market cap to $1,020.4 billion.

There are 86 new listings so far this year, compared with 76 in the period last year. However, the number of IPOs is down with 46 so far this year, versus 55 last year.