This represented an increase of some 40% compared with 1998. In the United States, there were close to 800 new stock listings in 1999, a slight decline compared with 1998, and in the United Kingdom new stock listings also declined from 1998 to 1999. These changes may obviously have reflected circumstantial factors, such as differing positions in the business cycle, for example.
These circumstantial factors notwithstanding, the increase in new listings also seems to have reflected the enhanced attractiveness of stock market listing in the euro area.