General News & Comment: Value of COATS trading is higher than expe

Volume and value in COATS trading are continuing at higher than expected levels according to statistics released by the Ontario Securities Commission.

The total value of COATS trading from its inception on April 17 to Sept 30 is 170.8 million shares worth a total value of $1.106 billion. The number of trades during that period amounted to 58,394.

From April 17 to June 30, total volume of trading amounted to 83.5 million shares worth a total value of $608.9 million. Total trades during this period were 30,897.

From July 1 to Sept 30, total volume amounted to 87.2 million worth $407.3 million. A total of 27,497 trades were made in this period.

A look at the average daily volume and value of shares traded sees a decline in the most recent quarter of operations due, says the OSC, to several of the largest trading stocks becoming listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Average daily volume from April 17 to June 30 is 1.6 million shares having an average daily value of $11.7 million. The average number of trades per day during this period was 594 with the average number of stocks traded amounting to 65 per day.

From July 1 to Sept 30, the average daily volume dropped to 1.3 million with an average daily value of $6.4 million. An average of 436 trades occurred during the day with an average 75 stocks traded per day during this period.

Total daily volume from April 17 to Sept 30 amounted to 1.4 million having a total average value of $8.8 million. During this period an average total of 508 trades were made per day with an average of 71 stocks traded per day.

The OSC statistics also show that the number of registrants willing to act as market-makers continued to increase as did the number of stocks quoted in the system.

On April 17, the day COATS trading began, there were 249 coats stocks quoted. On Sept 30, that number had increased to 304 stocks. Over that same period the number of market-makers have increased to 33 from 23. And the total number of stocks in COATS have increased to 1,148 on Sept 30 from 1,072 on April 17.

COATS, or Canadian over-the- counter automated trading system, is a regulatory system governing over-the counter trading in Ontario in the secondary market.