27.3.2004

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 78/52

(2004/C 78 E/0050)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1868/03

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 June 2003)

Subject: Equity culture

Will the Commission give the figures for the number of quoted companies in each Member State in each year for the last ten years? Will it also estimate the market capitalisation at the end of each year as a percentage of GDP? Will it further give the aggregate for the euro-area?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(17 July 2003)

The degree of detailed information may vary from country to country and may also vary from statistical sources on the stock markets. Sometimes, problems that can arise with provided data series where presence of gaps simply means a lack of data.

The sources of information used: World Federation of Exchanges, FESE, national institutions, Eurostat. When the data of the international organisations differ or are incomplete Eurostat turns to the data of the national institutions.

In order to increase the comparability level of the statistical information presented with other sources, a definition of the market capitalisation and of the number of listed companies are given below:

—	The number of companies which have shares listed on a specific exchange, split into domestic and foreign, and excluding investment funds, unit trusts is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat. A company with several classes of shares is counted just once.

—

A table with market capitalisation is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat. Stock market capitalisation (end of period, in billion ECU/euro, and percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) only annual figures) is calculated by multiplying the volume of shares quoted on the stock market by their market value. The series covers common and preferred shares, and shares without voting rights. Excluded are investment funds; rights, warrants, convertible instruments; options, futures; listed foreign shares; companies whose only business goal is to hold shares of other listed companies. Euro-zone and EU-15 aggregates are the sum of the individual countries available. Since 2001, the Euronext series replace the national series of Belgium, France and the Netherlands in the calculation of the European aggregates. From 2002, onwards this is also the case for Portugal. The United States data comprises the NYSE and Nasdaq exchanges, while Japan data comprises only the Tokyo exchange. Cross-country comparisons should be treated with caution, because of different national definitions, reporting rules and calculation methods. On 22 September 2000, the stock exchanges of Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam merged to form a new stock exchange called Euronext. End 2002 the stock exchanges of Oporto and Lisbon joint also Euronext. The data of this series are consolidated. Historical series start in general in 1991 apart from the series of Portugal, Ireland and Greece. The series of the Netherlands and Portugal stop in January 2002.