(Vienna) The Vienna Stock Exchange was not able to decouple from the turbulence on the international financial markets in the past year. After several very successful years, all major market indicators declined in 2008 under the influence of the financial crisis that originated in the US sub-prime market. The stocks of the leading index, ATX, plunged steeply in the second half-year and the index closed on 23 December at 1,725.89 points, which is a minus of 61.76% vs. year-end 2007. Market capitalization decreased during the same period from EUR 157.9bn to EUR 51.4bn. The average monthly trading volume also declined in the current year from EUR 14.7bn (2007) to around EUR 12bn, but thanks to the rising number of transactions in a highly volatile year, trading volumes did not decline to the same extent as stock prices.
"In our view, it will be very important to restore the confidence of private investors to equity investments again in the coming year. For this reason, we will expand our information activities for investors as well as for investment advisors, schools and universities. We also plan to expand our roadshow activities to keep the Austrian capital market on the radar of international institutional investors," stated the two members of the Management Board of the Vienna Stock Exchange, Michael Buhl and Heinrich Schaller.
Another area of focus for the coming year will be the close cooperation with the stock exchanges of Budapest, Ljubljana and Prague following the acquisition of majority stakes in all three of the neighboring stock exchanges by the Vienna Stock Exchange in 2008. The main goal will be to raise international awareness among institutional investors of this capital market region and to increase liquidity on the regional stock exchanges.