The Swiss stock exchange had a slightly higher trading volume last year compared with a year earlier. One popular business segment narrowed significantly.
Owners of equities may not feel much reason to rejoice about the past 12 months of trading, but the stock exchange itself, operated by SIX Swiss Exchange, did well enough. SIX had 12 initial public offerings in 2018, the biggest number since 2001, according to a release by the exchange today.
Trading volumes increased 1 percent to 1.36 trillion Swiss francs ($1.38 trillion). SIX’ share of trades in the biggest Swiss stocks rose to 70 percent from 68 percent.
The volume of exchange traded funds (ETFs) dropped 14 percent to about 100 billion francs in 2018, having reached a record in 2017.
