Trading on NZX’s $15.5 billion debt market tumbled 41 percent last month, amounting to just 0.5 percent of its capitalisation, according to the exchange’s operating figures.
The value of debt securities traded was $79 million and total trades fell about 11 percent to 3,002, NZX said. There were 108 debt securities listed on the NZDX market in October, down 6.9 percent from a year earlier.
October was also a low-wattage month for debt capital raising, with just $3 million raised, bringing the total year-to-date to $769 million. The market capitalisation of the NZDX market edged up 0.1 percent from a year earlier.
The tepid activity on the NZDX hasn’t deterred companies from looking to raise cash that way. Contact Energy, the biggest power company on the bourse, said yesterday it is mulling a bond issue of up to $150 million to push out its funding maturities.
The utility currently has $550 million of bonds listed in the NZDX.
Trading in equities fell 1.5 percent to $2 billion or an average $100 million a day last month. That amounts to 3.6 percent of the equity market capitalisation, which rose 1.7 percent to $56.3 billion in October from a year earlier. Total trades, though, jumped 39 percent to 58,624.
Shares of NZX were unchanged at $2.25 today and have soared 54 percent this year.
(BusinessDesk)
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