In July there were more than one million transactions processed on Amsterdam Exchange's stock exchange (AEX Effectenbeurs). The total number of transactions will reach a record high. The old record was set in June of this year, when 847,968 transactions were processed.

The millionth transaction of the month was in Heineken shares between the brokerage firm NIB Strating Financial markets NV and the specialists' (hoekmen's) firm Van der Wielen & Co. BV.

This record number of transactions forms the climax of a rising trend which has already been in progress for some years, and which seems mainly to be caused by increasing activity on the part of private investors. In 1995 the number of transactions processed each month was still only 258,000. By 1996 this figure had risen to 462,000. Now, in the first seven months of the present year, the average will exceed 765,000 transactions per month.

For further information contact Thom Hoedemakers, Amsterdam Exchanges AEX Amsterdam: 00 31 20 550 4540 or Paddy Manning, St James Corporate Communications London: 44 171 436 4101.

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