2006 has already become a record year for money raising through IPOs on the London Stock Exchange. So far this year, IPOs on the Exchange's markets have raised £17.8 billion, exceeding the £17.4 billion raised by IPOs during the whole of 2000.

During July, the Exchange attracted 25 IPOs, raising £7.4 billion between them. On the Main Market, there were eight IPOs, of which three were international companies, raising £3.9 billion between them. The five IPOs on the UK Main Market raised a total of £3.0 billion – the best single month since July 2000 in terms of money raised. On AIM, there were 17 IPOs, raising £563.0 million between them. Of these, four were from international companies, which raised £120.9 million between them.

On the secondary market, trading on SETS continued to show good growth against exceptionally heavy trading in July 2005. There were 6.2 million trades on SETS during July 2006, up 33 per cent on last year and equivalent to 294,142 trades each day. The total value traded on SETS was up 5 per cent on July 2005 to £107.7 billion, an average of £5.1 billion daily in what is normally a quieter trading month.

Increased activity on SETSmm continued to be a strong driver in overall SETS trading growth. The total number of trades on SETSmm was up 101 per cent on July 2005 to 1.3 million, while the total value traded was up 51 per cent to £9.7 billion. During July 2006, SETSmm accounted for 21 per cent of all order book trades, compared with 14 per cent during the same month last year.

Also included in the SETS figures, trading on the International Order Book was up very strongly on last year. The total number of trades was up 77 per cent to 49,440, and the value traded increased by 71 per cent to £3.9 billion.

The total number of trades in UK equities during the month was up 22 per cent on last year to 6.9 million. The total value traded in UK equities during the month was £214.9 billion.

ETF trading was up 44 per cent on July 2005 with a total of 16,570 trades during the month. The total value traded in ETFs was up 38 per cent year on year to £1.2 billion. The value traded in covered warrants and structured products grew 320 per cent to £79.3 million, and the number of trades was up 11 per cent to 5,135.

RNS, the Exchange's service for the dissemination of company news, transmitted a total of 14,442 announcements during July, up 32 per cent on July last year. These announcements included 5,634 news and results announcements, representing 88 per cent of all news and results announcements made in the UK.

There were 21 trading days in July 2006, the same number as the previous year.