The OMX Iceland 15 (formerly the ICEX15) is a defunct stock market index which consisted of a maximum of 15 companies listed on the

OMX Nasdaq Nordic is the common name for the subsidiaries of Nasdaq, Inc. that provide financial services and operate marketplaces for securities in the Nordic and Baltic regions of Europe. Historically, the operations were known by the company ...

Iceland Stock Exchange The Nasdaq Iceland, formerly known as the Iceland Stock Exchange (XICE) ( is, Kauphöll Íslands), is a stock exchange located in Iceland. It was established in 1985 as a joint venture of several banks and brokerage firms on the initiative of the ...

with the highest market capitalization. At the final official review of the index effective in January 2009, 12 companies made up the index, four of which were Faroese. Calculated daily since 1998 and starting at 1,000 points, it was a market value-weighted index and the constituent companies were reviewed twice a year. Over the year 2008 and over the entire decade 1998–2008 the OMX Iceland 15 was the worst performing stock index in the world, being heavily affected by the

2008 Icelandic financial crisis 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

which saw a number of index constituents become

insolvent In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet i ...

, be nationalised or opt to delist from the exchange. The index was discontinued in July 2009 and replaced by the OMX Iceland 6 as the exchange's benchmark stock index, which had run concurrently for the previous six months.

2008 decline

OMX Iceland 15 suffered a great loss during the financial crisis in 2008. Trading in the stock market was suspended for three successive trading days, October 9, October 10, and October 13. Trading was resumed on October 14, 2008, and OMX Iceland 15 closed at 678.4, which corresponds to a fall of about 77% compared with its close at 3,004.6 on October 8, 2008. This reflected the fact that the value of the three big banks (

Glitnir Forseti (Old Norse "the presiding one", "president" in modern Icelandic and Faroese) is the god of justice and reconciliation in Norse mythology. He is generally identified with Fosite, a god of the Frisians. Name Grimm took ''Forseti'', "''pr ...

Kaupthing Bank Kaupthing Bank ( is, Kaupþing banki; ) was a major international Icelandic bank, headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland. It was taken over by the Icelandic government during the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis and the domestic Icelandic ...

and

Landsbanki Íslands Landsbanki (literally "national bank"), also commonly known as Landsbankinn (literally "the national bank") which is now the name of the current rebuilt bank (here called "New Landsbanki"), was one of the largest Icelandic commercial banks that f ...

) which formed 73.2 percent of the value of the OMX Iceland 15, had been set to zero.

Final composition

The index consisted of the following companies at the final index reshuffle effective on 2 January 2009. Both

Straumur ALMC hf., formerly Straumur Investment Bank hf. ( is, Straumur Fjárfestingabanki), is a regional investment bank headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland. Founded in 1986 as ''Hlutabréfasjóðurinn'' and rebranded as Straumur in 2004, the bank in ...

and SPRON were

delisted In corporate finance, a listing refers to the company's shares being on the list (or board) of stock that are officially traded on a stock exchange. Some stock exchanges allow shares of a foreign company to be listed and may allow dual listing, su ...

from the exchange before the index's retirement six months later.

References

{{Nasdaqomx Economy of Iceland European stock market indices Nasdaq Nordic