Bank of Bermuda shareholders reaped the benefit of a stock offer yesterday which pushed the total value of shares held up by 14 percent, but saw the overall price of shares fall by $5.375. The new floated stock was issued as part of a bonus offered to its shareholders two weeks ago and gave every shareholder an extra free share for every seven held by a shareholder. The windfall to shareholders, however, pushed the price down as more shares were suddenly on the market. The issue affects all the shareholders in the bank.

These are held by groups as diverse as bank employees, managers, charities, private individuals, large corporations, pension plans, schools and churches.

The Bermuda Stock Exchange worked out the new share price by dividing the total worth of the shares, which closed on Tuesday at a new all-time high of $43, by the new total of shares. This meant that the Stock Exchange readjusted figure for bank shares opened for trade at $37.625. But the bank is still on the up with over half a million dollars worth of shares changing hands yesterday. The shares regained some of their lost ground and rose by $2.37 or 6.3 percent to close at $40. The recent boom in share price and the added stock has seen the bank's market capitalisation peak at over $1 billion for the first time this week. The BSX Index was also readjusted to take in the new lowered price and more shares on the market. But the index closed up 67.37 to a new all time high of 1,917.27, a far cry from the all-time low of 896 and the average of 1,400 kept for most of the past year. The Stock Exchange Index's all-time high was also reached with the help of the bank's shares.

This record stood at 1,733.5931 and was set on May 22, 1998. It was broken for the first time last Tuesday, August 8. Since then the index has been rising almost every day, and appears to be continuing upwards. The meteoric rise in the bank share price, which has in turn bumped up the Index almost every day for the past month, comes after speculation that the Bank of Bermuda will be exempted from the 60/40 ownership rules which restrict foreign investment. The bank wants to float on the Nasdaq and the idea has caught the imagination of investors who have been fighting to get their hands on the stock.