GERMANYA EUROMONEY SURVEY - June 1996THE EQUITY MARKET STRUCTUREThere is often a great discrepancy between reality and image. When talking to foreign market participants, one usually arouses incredulity and amazement when drawing attention to the fact that the volume of turnover in domestic shares on Germany's stock exchanges occupies third place on a worldwide basis, trailing New York and Tokyo (cf. Table 1).In 1995, more than Dm250 million was turned over every day in each of the top three shares (Daimler Benz, Siemens and Deutsche Bank). Even the fifteenth-largest stock in terms of turnover (Schering) posted a daily volume of just under Dm75 million. The top 30 DAX stocks posted an average daily volume of around Dm2.5 billion in 1995. This means that the DAX stocks account for approximately 80% of total turnover on the German stock exchanges (cf. Table 2). Thanks to its high level of liquidity, the German market is becoming increasingly attractive for international IPOs. Examples are the National Power/PowerGen issues or more recently Railtrack. Since the beginning of this year, the 70 next largest shares after the DAX stocks have been represented in the MDAX (mid-cap index). |