(Vienna) Today at 09.22 hrs, the ATX broke through the 5,000-point-mark for the first time. Vienna’s most important index continued its brilliant performance of the past few years – it has gained 334.76% since year-end 2002 – and despite temporary price corrections at the end of January and in June, it has advanced by 12.02% since the beginning of this year.
“The fact that the ATX was able to surpass the 5,000-point mark today did not come as a surprise,” said Heinrich Schaller, Joint CEO of Wiener Börse AG. He continued to explain that “as long as the economy continues to develop well, the trend will be sustainably supported by the business success of our listed companies, especially in Eastern Europe. 95% of ATX companies are involved in business in Central and Southeast Europe where they earn the majority of their profits.Earnings have even surpassed analysts’ expectations practically across the board.”
Schaller was able to give a few more reasons for the unbroken positive performance of the market in Vienna: “The internationalisation of the financial marketplace of Vienna is an enormous stimulus. The 35 foreign investment banks that are direct trading members of Wiener Börse account for almost 56.5% of trading volume today.” The largest fund investors in ATX stocks are from outside the country: 30% come from the US, 25% from Great Britain and 14% from Germany. Austria is fourth with 7%. Trading volumes have risen very rapidly in recent years: After nearly doubling in the past two years, the average trading volumes have risen again steeply in 2007 and have climbed from EUR 10.5bn (year-end 2006) to EUR 15bn at the end of June 2007.
Six new listings on Wiener Börse as well as several capital increases this year raised some EUR 6.5bn in fresh capital and additionally boosted the domestic market. The new mid-market segment of Wiener Börse, which will start operations in mid-June, is designed to give access to the capital market to smaller companies that do not need large volumes of capital and therefore enable them to improve their capital adequacy ratio. The aim of the new segment over the medium to long term is to help these companies develop to full maturity as listed companies and join the prime market of Wiener Börse.