Market report - July 2004

London Stock Exchange Plc
09 August 2004


                                                                    News Release
9 August 2004
MR37-07.04

                           RECORD MONTH FOR AIM IPOS

July was a record month for AIM, the London Stock Exchange's international
market for smaller growing companies, with 42 IPOs raising £562.7 million
between them. There were also 4 IPOs on the main market, and new entrants to
both markets raised a total of £1.5 billion.

During the month, there were also year on year increases in trading volumes
across the Exchange's markets.  There were 5,259,545 trades with a value of £360
billion during July, representing nine and 14 per cent increases on July 2003,
respectively.

SETS attracted an average of 154,797 trades each day, up 30 per cent on July
2003.  The average daily value traded on SETS was £3.4 billion, up 23 percent on
the same month last year.  The total number of trades on SETS during the month
was up 25 per cent on the previous year at 3.41 million, while the value traded
increased 18 per cent to £74.4 billion.

These year on year increases in part reflect the contribution made by EUROSETS,
the London Stock Exchange's new trading platform for Dutch equities, which saw a
total of 36,201 trades in July, a more than four-fold increase on June.  The
total value traded was €1.2 billion, over five times the €222.6 million value
traded in June.

SETSmm also contributed to the overall growth in SETS trades with a record
288,279 equity trades executed in July 2004, worth a total of £3.1 billion.

Last month's record number of ETF trades was narrowly broken, with 10,836
bargains on the Exchange during July 2004.  The value of ETFs traded amounted to
£354 million.

There were 22 business days in July 2004, compared with 23 in July 2003.


                                    - ends -


For further information, please contact:

Catherine Mattison                           Press Office   [phone]
[e-mail]


Notes to editors:
     
•    About the London Stock Exchange:

     The London Stock Exchange is one of the world's leading equity exchanges 
     and a leading provider of services that facilitate the raising of capital 
     and the trading of shares.

     The London Stock Exchange is the most international equities exchange by 
     trading in the world and Europe's largest pool of liquidity.  By the end of 
     2003, the market capitalisation of UK and international companies on its 
     markets amounted to £3.3 trillion, with £3.6 trillion of equity business 
     transacted over the year.

     The London Stock Exchange is a Recognised Investment Exchange (RIE) under 
     the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and is supervised by the 
     Financial Services Authority
     
•    SETS - the electronic order book.

     It is over six years since the launch of SETS and the service continues to 
     go from strength to strength. Overall, the market is benefiting from 
     tighter spreads and greater liquidity. Usage of SETS continues to grow, as 
     shown by recent record increases in the number of orders entered, the 
     number of firms using the order book and order book share of business.

     Indices are calculated and managed by FTSE Group, a world-leader in the 
     creation and management of global equity indices. The FTSE Group is jointly 
     owned by the London Stock Exchange and the Financial Times, but operates as 
     a wholly autonomous company.

     For information about the company or any FTSE indices, please contact
     [e-mail]

     IPO - when a new company joins our market raising money.  This excludes
     transfers and introductions (a company that joins a market without raising     
     money).

     
•    SETSmm

     SETSmm is the Exchange's new trading service for FTSE 250 and other leading 
     non order book securities.  By combining the best features of the existing 
     SETS and SEAQ trading services, SETSmm appeals to market users who want to 
     trade electronically, as well as those customers who use the market making 
     system.

•    Retail Trading Figures

     Retail trading figures are available from our website at -
     www.londonstockexchange.com/en-gb/products/membershiptrading/
     retailtradestat

     Figures are available from November 2002 to date.

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE

MONTHLY FACTSHEET FIGURES


July 2004


                                                2004                             2003
DOMESTIC EQUITY TRADING                        Month    Year to date            Month    Year to date

Equity Trading Value (£m)                    184,726       1,385,380          163,703       1,019,290
Number of Equity Trades                    4,294,416      31,120,207        3,942,702      26,114,062


INTERNATIONAL EQUITY TRADING

Equity Trading Value (£m)                    174,886       1,390,035          150,565         986,316
Number of Equity Trades                      965,129       6,694,554          869,821       6,165,819


ORDER BOOK TRADING

Order Book Value (£m)                          74,370         518,883           63,182           404,580
Order Book Trades                           3,405,532      22,903,322        2,732,000        18,738,257



                                                     July 2004                July 2003

DOMESTIC MARKET CAPITALISATION (£bn)                                1,366                           1,269

TOTAL NUMBER OF COMPANIES                                           2,753                           2,711
UK list                                              1,498                    1,610
Foreign                                              365                      395
AIM                                                  890                      706
of which techMARK                                    173                      193


                                                 2004                           2003
MONEY RAISED (£m)                               Month    Year to date          Month      Year to date

UK & AIM New Issues Equity                      1,482           3,869          1,170             1,747
Further, Rights and Other                         777           6,646            264             2,415
Bonds, Warrants, Fixed Interest                13,368          81,777         14,450            69,392
Int. New Issues Equity                              -             587              -               100
Further, Rights and Other                          44             166            898             4,830
Bonds, Warrants, Fixed Interest                 6,905          62,262          9,762            55,230

COMPANIES ADMITTED                                 55             208             18                84



                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange