Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 1999)

Marine Finance

OSE on Steady Course after Rough '98

A surge in stock prices in the second half of December last year did not pre- vent 1998 from being the poorest of the last 16 years of the OSE All Share

Index. The all-share index fell 26.7 per cent in 1998 after five consecutive years of rising share values. The OSE shipping index (which includes offshore shares) fared even worse. It plummeted 45.5 per cent after a solid gain of nearly 40 per cent in 1997.

For the Oslo Stock Exchange the financial crisis in Asia and the oil price had a disproportionate influence on the indices. It has a larger proportion of oil- related and shipping shares than the average European stock market to explain this phenomenon. Generally all shares suffered from other adverse fac- tors such as rising interest rates and a falling krone.

A look at the maritime sectors on other stock exchanges around the world shows that the performance of shipping shares elsewhere has not fared any better than those listed in Oslo. However, the high proportion of maritime or oil-related companies listed in Oslo, meant the

OSE was hit particularly hard.

Are there any signs of recovery? Yes there are. From being one of the weakest performing European stock exchanges in 1998, the OSE so far in 1999 have turned into the second best performing stock exchange in Europe, behind

Helsinki.

At the end of the first tertial this year many of the "fundamentals" seem to be back. The oil price is at USD 15; interest rates are down about 1.5 percentage points; and the krone has strengthened.

The market has responded: shipping and offshore shares by + 25 per cent at the end of April; compared with + 21 per cent for the total market. Shipping shares like Bona Shipholding, Stolt

Nielsen, Jinhui, Ganger Rolf, I.M. Skau- gen and Odfjell, and offshore shares like

Stolt Comex Seaway and Smedvig have increased their value by more than 60% so far this year.

Leaving the current market situation, I would like to focus on other fundamen- tals which remain unchanged despite the recent period of turbulence.

First, attracting listings from the ship- ping and offshore industries is still a declared priority for the OSE. This pri-

High

OSLO STOCK EXCHANGE:

Shipping & Offshore Shares

Includes Shipping and offshore shares on the OSE main list. Source: Oslo Stock Exchange lis Like Pushing 250 Loaded TracTor

Trailer Rigs...

High horsepower marine propulsion products. That's all we do. And ninety percent of our products are used everyday in the marine industry. In fact, no other U.S. manufacturer produces more marine propulsion products than the

Haley™ group of companies.

Our manufacturing divisions produce gearing, clutches and couplings for applications in the 800 to 6.000 horse power range. And we provide replacement parts no matter who manufactured the original.

And while we manufacture the best component parts in the marine industry, we also have a service department that is beyond compare. Whether you have an obsolete clutch that needs to be replaced in Cape Town or broken coupling in Chicago, our technical service department will have the part and the technician in the air faster than any other manufacturer on the planet.

Call us today for the world's most complete line of marine propulsion products.

HALEY MARINE GEARS, INC.

P.O. Box BBS

GREENVILLE, MISSISSIPPI 3B702-06B3

B01 -332-B~71 B FAX B01 -335-4322

WWW. HALEYINC. COM

HALEY MARINE GEARS INTERNATIONAL, INC. 260D CONCORD ROAD

BELLE CHASSE, LA 70037 300-227-91 SB FAX 504-334-1 460

WWW. HALEYINC. COM 10 Circle 179 on Reader Service Card Maritime Reporter/Engineering News