Book Description

Abstract: The report on "Market efficiency in Nordic and Baltic Stock Exchanges" was presented by the Nordic Working Group for Securities Market Issues in May 2004. The report was based on a questionnaire sent to the Nordic and Baltic stock exchanges. The questionnaire consisted of specific questions about legal environment, foreign investment, competition and cooperation with other exchanges and general questions about individual markets. The focus was primarily on the stock market and to get the views of the stock exchange operators. The main views of the stock exchange operators related to the following topics: Clearing and settlement, co-operation, extensive EU regulation, taxation, legal obligations on the central securities depositaries, transparency rules and global competition. The key obsevations of the report were the following: Firstly, cross-border clearing and settlement and central counterparty clearing was raised by a number of respondents as a feature common to the relevant other securities markets but non-existent in the Nordic market. Secondly, the increasing amount of delisted companies which appears to be common in all the Nordic and Baltic countries raises concerns of the lucrativity of the stock market. Thirdly, acquiring the necessary comparative data to enable setting the Nordic and Baltic market in the global context would be useful