Any investors convinced it’s been a quiet six months on the New Zealand sharemarket scene now have the facts to back that feeling up.

Sharemarket operator the NZX revealed today that the total value of shares traded in the first six months of the year was down by nearly a quarter on last year.

The NZX operating metrics for the six months also show that $4.56 billion in capital has been raised so far in 2009, with $1.69 billion in equity and $2.87 billion in debt.

2009 looks on track to be the year of capital raising, with the amount raised in the first six months already nibbling at the heels of 2007's capital raising record of $5.5 billion. 

The total value of shares traded on the NZX for the first half of 2009 was $11.65 billion, down 23% on the same period last year.

The total number of trades was also down 7% on last year to 269,369.

The NZSX saw 8% less trades in the six months, while trading on the NZAX was down a whopping 43% on 2008.

The NZX operating metrics for June, also released today, show that the total value of shares traded last month was picking up slightly on the half year result, but was still down 12% to $2.273 billion.

Things also look a little brighter with the average daily value traded figure of $108 million, the highest daily average value traded since last September.

The debt market was the only NZX market to see positive movement in June, with the total number of trades up 49% on last year to 3833 trades, worth $136 million.

More equity than debt was raised in June, with $342.04 million in equity eclipsing the $261.8 million in debt raised. 

The amount of NZX market data terminals in circulation has reversed the recent shrinking trend by increasing by 2% to 8197, although this is still down 25% on last year.