YEREVAN, January 13, /ARKA/. NASDAQ OMX Armenia reported a considerable rise in the volume of transactions in securities in December 2009 as opposed to the previous month, saying their overall volume jumped to 480.1 million Drams from 38.4 million Drams in November.

Eighty percent of all transactions, or 384.1 million Drams, were transactions in corporate securities. The rest were transactions in state treasury bonds. The leader in terms of transactions number was Shen Concern, which accounted for 54.2% of all transactions or 208.1 million Drams.

NASDAQ OMX Armenia is the new name of the Armenian Stock Exchange ojsc (renamed on January 27, 2009), however, it is also used to refer jointly to the stock exchange and the Central Depository of Armenia (CDA), as the both companies have been members of the NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. since early 2008.

NASDAQ OMX Armenia and the CDA are the major securities market infrastructure institutions in Armenia. Since their inception in 2000, both companies had operated as self-regulatory organizations established by member broker companies, up until demutualization in 2007.

Twenty-seven Armenian companies, including 20 banks, have joined NASDAQ OMX Armenia. At the end of 2009 12 shares and 9 corporate bonds were registered and listed in NASDAQ OMX Armenia whose capitalization was 53 billion Drams. NASDAQ OMX Armenia is a part of the world's largest exchange company, the NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. ($1 – 378. 21 Drams).  -0-