The interest in shares in April remained high, with turnover amounting to 73.9bn guilders compared to52.2bn guilders in April 1996. Over the first four months of 1997 turnover in shares was 52.7% higher than in the same period in the previous year. Turnover amounted to 2.9mn contracts, as against 2nm contracts in April 1996. Over the first four months of 1997 turnover in stock options and options on stock indexes amounted to 13mn contracts, almost 60% higher than the turnover in the first four months of 1996.

On Friday, 18 April 1997, the last day of trading for April contracts on AEX-Optiebeurs, the value of shares traded on AEX-Effectenbeurs reached a record level of 7. lbn guilders.

The AEX-index fluctuated in the month between a low of 698.05 and a high of 766.74. On the last day of March (Easter Monday) there were heavy losses on Wall Street brought about by fears of increasing inflation and interest rates. On 1 April, in reaction to this, the AEX-index fell originally by more than 40 points, bringing the index down below the 700 level. There was a slight recovery in the course of the day, and later in the month the losses were made good. The index closed at 763.34, representing a gain of 22.35 points over the month as a whole. The Amsterdam Midcap index, at 1157.03, had gained almost 27 points over its value at the close of march. The Top 5 index, at 1243.76, also closed the month up, with an increase of 42.35 points.

The Eurotop 100 index, the indicator for the major European stock exchanges, rose more than 40 points in April, closing at 1896.77. Since 1 January 1997 the Eurotop 100 index has risen 17.6%. In the same period the AEX-index rose 17.8%. The Eurotop I 00 index has had its annual reweighting, so that from 21 April its value has been based on its new composition.

AEX-EFFECTENBEURS

Total turnover on AEX-Effectenbeurs in April amounted to 142bn guilders. Turnover in shares was 73.9bn guilders. For bonds the turnover was 67.9bn guilders. This was the first time since May 1990 that a month had more turnover in shares than in bonds.

Developments outside the country were the main influencing factors . In addition to price movements on other exchanges there was also the increasing value of the dollar to stimulate price movement. In the last few weeks it has been suggested on various sides that the coming of the common European currency, the Euro, may perhaps need to be postponed for some time. For the European currencies, and in particular the D-mark, this led to some exchange rate pressure, to the benefit of the dollar, which rose to a level of almost 1.95 guilders.

Another factor that played a role in price movement was company news. In April a large number of companies published their profit figures, in some cases for 1996, in others for the first quarter of 1997. The effects these figures had on prices varied widely. For example, Philips achieved a new price record of more than 100 guilders after reporting its quarter's profit. The publication of Akzo Nobel's figures was followed by a fall in price.

The price rises were however quite evenly spread over the different sectors. The internationals scored rather better than average, as did the financial sector. The least progress was made by non financial securities on the National Market.

The software company Multihouse found itself compelled to apply for a moratorium in connection with a claim from a group of customers for an amount running into millions of guilders. Later in the month it became known that the company will be split up, so that the customers will have to content themselves with a fraction of the amount claimed. The shares were transferred to the section for securities not officially listed, sometimes called the sin-bin, where the price fell dramatically.

It was a rather productive month in the field of introductions to the exchange. The New Market Amsterdam (NMA) was gladdened by the arrival of two newcomers, the English gearbox manufacturer Antonov and the computerisation company Computer Service Solutions. In both cases the price rose above the introduction price. There was also an announcement by Toonder that it would be applying for listing on New Market Amsterdam. Docdata, ICT and Nutreco declared themselves as possible candidates for the official market.

Nothing changed much last month in interest rates. The official money market rates remained unchanged after the increase in March, and on the capital market too, rates remained virtually stable. The average return on government bonds remained at a level of around 5.3%.

AEX-OPTIEBEURS

For AEX-Optiebeurs April was the fourth month in succession in which turnover came out at more than 3 million contracts. In total almost 3.2 million options and futures were traded last month.

More that a quarter of the April turnover on AEX-Optiebeurs came from trading in index products. The absolute top position was held by options on the AEX-index, with 661,000 traded, almost evenly divided between puts and calls. Options on the Top 5 index achieved a turnover of 43,000 contracts, 28,000 of which were calls. In total more than 700,000 were traded, representing a rise compared with April 1996 of 48.3%.

There was also lively trading in futures on the AEX-index. Some 202,000 of these contracts were traded, representing more than 97% of the April turnover in futures. By comparison with the same month in the previous year, turnover in futures rose 82.8%.

Stock options together traded 2.2 million contracts. The calls, of which 1.5 million were traded, were well in the majority. Leaders amongst the stock options were the financial classes ABN AMRO Bank and ING. Both of these achieved a turnover of 342,000 contracts. The distance to Royal Dutch, with 191,000 options traded holder of the next place on the turnover list, was more than 150,000 contracts. Next came Philips, with 154,00. Other interesting classes in this section of the market were Hoogovens, Reed Elsevier and Ahold.

The movement in the US dollar put strong pressure on AEX-Optiebeurs's currency options post. More than 53,000 dollar / guilder options were traded there in April, with call options providing the major part of the business.

17,500 standardised bond options were traded in April, all on the 7.5% Netherlands 1993-2023.

AEX-AGRARISCHE TERMIJNMARKT

In April more than 19,700 contracts were traded on the AEX-Agrarische Termijnmarkt. Of these live hog futures took more than 11,000. There were 7,700 potato futures traded.

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