Equities

You can invest in equities

1. by buying the shares of a company directly on the stock exchange or
2. indirectly by investing in equity and balanced funds or in investment bonds.

In addition, you can invest in equities by subscribing for shares in share issues or share sales where the present owners of the company sell part of their holdings to new investors.

The shares are in the form of book-entries and you will need a book-entry account  for them. The book-entry account will be opened in the bank. After your trades have been completed you will receive a calculation to help you to settle capital gains or losses in taxation.

In order to be able to trade, you will need the Investor's service in addition to the book-entry account. With the service you can submit buy and sell orders and monitor their status and the value of your investments.

Risk and return

The return on an equity investment is dependent on the long-term success of the issuing company. On the long term, it is likely that an equity investment will generate a better return than a fixed-income investment, despite share prices sometimes rising and falling drastically. 

The risks in equity investment are related to the general performance of the equity markets and the success of the issuing companies. Investments in foreign shares also constitute an exchange rate risk. Equity investors will gain a return from the dividends paid on the shares and from a rise in the shares' prices.

You can minimise risks by diversifying. You can reduce the company risk by spreading your investment over several companies and the market risk by investing some of your assets in fixed-income instruments. Funds are an excellent help in diversification. In addition, it is worth remembering time diversification. It means that shares should be bought and sold in several lots over a long period of time.

Trading in Netbank

Trading in equities is easy through Netbank

With the Investor's service in Netbank you can send buy and sell orders to the stock market and monitor their status and the value of your investments. In the service you will also have access to up-to-date information services, analyses and buy recommendations.

You can trade in over 20 different marketplaces and in more than 2,500 different equities. Trading in international equities is just as easy as trading in domestic ones: you can issue orders the same way.

Equities come as book-entries

An equity investor must open a book-entry account with the bank. Once a trade has been completed, the investor will be provided with a calculation of the trade, which is used to settle capital gains or losses in taxation.

Marketplaces

Using your Investor's service in Netbank, you can trade in the following market places and equities traded in the same currency as that of the stock exchange.

Price information from the Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo exchanges is displayed in real time and, for an extra fee, from USA.