The introduction of the euro coincided with an increasing popularity of shares, especially of the “new economy” companies. On Euro.NM - an alliance of the “new markets” of five European countries the number of listed companies grew from 165 at the end of December 1998 to 497 at the end of July 2000.
The simultaneous increase in market capitalisation was even more pronounced at 670%.1 Overall stock market capitalisation in the euro area went up from 3.6 trillion euros in December 1998 to 6.1 trillion euros in July 2000.2 The issue market was supported by rapidly increasing stock prices in the last quarter of 1999 and the first quarter of 2000 but slowed down somewhat thereafter.