STOCK TRANSACTIONS OF SELECTED FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
AND FOREIGN INVESTORS, 1975

During 1975 private noninsured pension funds, open-end investment companies, life insurance companies and property-liability insurance companies purchased $35.2 billion of common stock and sold $30.6 billion, resulting in net purchases of $4.7 billion. In 1974 purchases were $27.2 billion; sales were $24.4 billion; and net purchases were $2.8 billion. Their common stock activity rate was 23.0 percent as compared to 19.1 percent a year earlier. 1/

Private Noninsured Pension Funds

Purchases of common stock by private noninsured pension funds rose from $11.8 billion in 1974 to $17.6 billion in 1975, while sales increased from $9.3 billion to $11.8 billion. Therefore, net purchases climbed from $2.4 billion to $5.7 billion and their common stock activity rate rose from 14.1 percent to 18.3 percent.

Open-End Investment Companies

For the year ending December 31, mutual funds purchased $10.9 billion of common stock and sold $12.1 billion, yielding net sales of $1.2 billion. For the previous year, purchases were $9.1 billion; sales were $9.4 billion; and net sales were $0.3 billion. Their common stock activity rate was 35.8 percent, up from 30.5 percent a year earlier.

Life Insurance Companies

Purchases of common stock by life insurance companies for their general accounts were $1.8 billion during 1975, about the same as the year before; sales were $1.7 billion versus $1.3 billion in 1974. As a result, net purchases for the year declined from $0.5 billion to $0.2 billion, while the activity rate rose from 15.1 percent to 16.3 percent.

For their separate accounts, life insurance companies purchased $2.7 billion of common stock and sold $1.7 billion, resulting in net purchases of $1.0 billion. A year earlier, purchases were $2.2 billion; sales were $1.2 billion; and net purchases were $1.0 billion. Their common stock activity rate increased from 24.1 percent to 26.0 percent.

1/ Activity rate is defined as the average of gross purchases and sales divided by the average market value of holdings.

Property-Liability Insurance Companies

Purchases of common stock by property-liability insurance companies dropped from $2.4 billion in 1974 to $2.2 billion in 1975, while sales remained about the same at $3.2 billion. Thus, net sales increased from $0.8 billion in 1974 to $1.0 billion in 1975 and their common stock activity rate rose from 21.3 percent to 23.8 percent.

Foreign Investors

During 1975 foreign investors purchased $15.0 billion of corporate stock and sold $10.6 billion, netting a record-setting level of $4.4 billion in additional holdings. In 1974 they made purchases of $7.6 billion, sales of $7.1 billion, and net purchases of $0.5 billion.

Block Transactions on the New York Stock Exchange

The volume of block transactions on the NYSE (involving 10,000 or more shares) is considered an indicator of institutional trading. During 1975 block transactions totaled $19.4 billion as compared to $11.9 billion a year earlier. Block share volume rose from 549.4 million to 778.5 million as the number of blocks traded increased from 23,200 to 34,420.