Equity Markets Highlights

By: The WFE Statistics Team Aug 2019
  • Global market capitalisation was up 1.6% at the end of H1 2019 compared to H1 2018.
    • The increase in global market capitalisation in H1 2019 took place after a sharp year-on-year decline in global market capitalisation at the end of 2018, for the first time since 2014. Thanks to the H1 2019 increase, domestic market capitalisation is now at a comparable level vs the end of H1 2018 (+1.6%).
    • Compared to H2 2018, global market capitalisation was up 17.8% at the end of H1 2019.
    • This was due to an increase across the three regions, with the Americas up 17.6%, the Asia-Pacific region up 21.3% and the EMEA region up 13.6%.
    • This increase has been steady overall, with constant month-on-month increases over the first six months of 2019. This excludes the month of May, which saw a global 4.3% decrease.
    • All three regions experienced a similar trend, with steady month-on-month increases, a halt in May and a final increase in June.

  • As compared to H1 2018, the value of trades in equity shares decreased by 11% globally, while the number of trades increased by 11.4% globally. These global figures are driven by diverging regional trends.
    • Asia-Pacific shows an opposite trend, with the value of equity trading up 5.5% and the number of equity trades up 23.8% compared to H1 2018.
    • Compared to H1 2018 half-year figures, both the Americas and the EMEA regions have seen a sharp decrease in both the value and the number of trades in equity shares, with value traded lower by 17.4% and a 25.8% respectively and the number of trades lower by 5.5% and 15.6% respectively.

  • The number of listed companies was slightly lower as compared to H1 2018 (-0.5%).
    • The number of listed companies at end H1 2019 was slightly down on H1 2018. The change was largely driven by the EMEA region, which has seen a 2.3% decrease in the number of listed companies. In both the Asia-Pacific and the Americas region, the number of listed companies was instead up +0.5% and +1.4% on H1 2018 respectively.
    • Compared to H2 2018, the total number of listed companies was essentially the same, with slight increases in the three regions.

  • Overall, new listings and investment flows fell over the first six months of 2019 compared to H1 2018.
    • New listings through IPOs were down 35.2% compared to H1 2018, due to a decline in the number of IPOs in all regions: Asia-Pacific (-32.7%), Americas (-22.3%) and EMEA (-55.4%).
    • Investment flows through IPOs also fell by 19.3% compared to H1 2018. This was due to a decline in investment flows in Asia-Pacific (-32%) and a greater decline in the EMEA region (-51.8%). The Americas region recorded an 18.7% increase in investment flows
      • IPO investment flows in the Americas region were up despite the decline in the number of listings thanks to several large IPOs, such as technology and transportation network company Lyft (Nasdaq), that raised over 2.3 Billion USD; pet food company Chewy (NYSE), that raised over 1 Billion USD; and utility/energy company Neoenergia (B3), that raised nearly 1 Billion USD. In the first six months of 2019, the New York Stock Exchange was the market that recorded the highest amount of fund raised through IPOs in the Americas region, accounted for 16.8 Billion USD.
      • The Asia-Pacific region held the lion’s share of global IPOs, drawing almost 60% of IPOs worldwide. These allowed companies listing in the region to raise over 27 Billion USD in H1 2019. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) recorded the highest number of IPOs in the region (63), raising 8.8 Billion USD alone. Some major IPOs in the region were Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group (HKEX), that raised over 1 Billion USD; vocational training company China East Education Holdings (HKEX), that raised over 600 Billion USD; and Cnooc Energy Technology & Services (Shanghai Stock Exchange), that raised more than 500 million USD.
      • In the EMEA region, the political uncertainty arising from the unresolved Brexit negotiations and subsequently the change of the UK prime minister is likely to have had a negative influence on the number of listings and investment flows in the EMEA region. Despite that, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) listed 32 IPOs, which raised nearly 5.9 Billion USD. These included some of the largest IPOs globally, such as Italian payment company Nexi Spa (Borsa Italiana), which raised more than 2.2 Billion USD. Deutsche Börse was the second biggest market in the EMEA region after LSEG in terms of investment funds, thanks to a large IPO (Traton, Volkswagen’s manufacturer of commercial vehicles) which alone raised more than 1.5 Billion USD. Oslo Børs was third, raising more than 1.2 Billion USD for seven newly listed companies.