Securities registered with the Norwegian Central Securities Depository, Q1 2009

Despite uncertainty and a sharp fall in share values due to the global financial crisis, Norwegian households are net buyers of shares registered with Norwegian Central Securities Depository in the last three quarters. During the second half of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, households net purchased shares totalled NOK 5.6 billion. These purchases resulted in an increase in households’ ownership of shares from 4.6 per cent at the end of the second quarter of 2008 to 5.6 per cent at the end of the first quarter of 2009.

Fall in share values slow down

The total share values in the companies registered with the Norwegian Central Securities Depository were reduced by NOK 25.4 billion in the first quarter of 2009 and amounted to NOK 1 308 billion at the end of the quarter. This decrease in share values was considerably smaller compared with the sharp fall in share values in the third and fourth quarters of 2008, through which share values for more than NOK 1000 billion disappeared. The Oslo Stock Exchange “All-share index” fell by 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2009. The share values were, by the end of the quarter, divided into NOK 944 billion in quoted shares and NOK 364 billion in unquoted shares. Foreign share owners continued to sell Norwegian shares, reducing their total ownership from 31.3 per cent to 30.9 per cent during the quarter. Through 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, the Norwegian government purchased a substantial number of shares in StatoilHydro ASA and owns at the end of the period 29.2 per cent of the total share values registered with the Norwegian Central Securities Depository.

Government measures increase stocks of debt securities

Stocks of debt securities registered with the Norwegian Central Securities Depository increased in the first quarter of 2009. The stock of bonds increased by 9.5 per cent, to NOK 1003.6 billion, and the stock of short-term debt securities increased by 14 per cent, to NOK 207.4 billion. The growth in the stocks of debt securities is mainly caused by an increase in issuing activity due to government measures established in October 2008 to improve the liquidity in Norwegian banks¹.

¹The government measures, established in October 2008, to improve the liquidity in Norwegian banks mean that the banks can exchange their covered bonds with government securities. In the VPS statistics, these covered bonds are registered as owned by the government in the exchange period. In the bank accounts, these covered bonds are kept as assets and as government loans on the liability side.