a global securities company to its list of trading members.

Nomura Securities (Bermuda) Ltd., owned by Nomura Holding America Inc., the North American holding company for the world's largest securities firm, The Nomura Securities Company Ltd. of Tokyo, became a trading member on Thursday.

It is the first broker/dealer BSX trading member affiliated with a global brokerage firm, and the eighth trading member overall.

"We are honoured that a firm with the reputation of Nomura has chosen Bermuda,'' BSX CEO William Woods said. "Nomura's international standing adds an important dimension to the BSX and indicates the success of our efforts to deepen relationships with capital markets worldwide.'' This brings the number of BSX trading members to eight.

In the last six months, the BSX's market capaitalisation has soared by $23 billion to $25 billion, largely due to the addition of secondary listings for the Jardine group of companies and Bermuda-based insurance companies ACE and Exel.

Mutual funds recently listed on the exchange include Invesco's India Growth Fund and the Bermuda managed Orbis Global Equity fund.