Shares on multiple stock exchanges & other currencies?

RSharkR

Hello

I wanted to get some advice, as a relative newbie to shares investments.

I've been looking at shares in Norwegian energy company Equinor, who have many international projects, and I work in the sector so understand their business etc.
I notice that they have two sets of shares listed - Equinor 'Nor Com 2.5' on the Oslo stock exchange in Norwegian currency (currently about 131 NOK = about £10.82) and Equinor 'Sponsored ADR each rep 1 ODR' on the NY stock exchange in dollars (currently $14.20 = £10.78).

I'm based in Britain but presume I'm ok to buy shares in either of these, albeit I assume that my share platform might take a fee for foreign exchange etc?

Is there any actual difference between these shares on the two markets, or do they effectively mirror each other? Is it better for me to buy them on one rather than another, or doesn't it matter? 

Thanks in advance.  

ElephantBoy57

I don't know the answer to your question, but I bought shares in Royal Dutch Shell B, there is also a Royal Dutch Shell A

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/RDSB/royal-dutch-shell-plc/company-page?lang=en

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/RDSA/royal-dutch-shell-plc/company-page?lang=en

Thrugelmir

You'll be able to buy the stock through your broker. Equinor 'Nor Com 2.5' is traded through the LSE. Ask the dealing desk what the cost will be. Sometimes there'll be an additional transaction fee on overseas share transactions. 

RSharkR

I'm only signed up with Hargreaves & Landsdown online in terms of 'brokers', and it lists those two options, so not sure what to choose. 

RSharkR

Can anybody help with this?

Thrugelmir

The shares are the same. Just where they are listed and traded. 

RSharkR

Thanks. From a UK share buyer's point of view there's no dis/advantage of one over the other?

bowlhead99

RSharkR said:

Thanks. From a UK share buyer's point of view there's no dis/advantage of one over the other?

As non-US companies can't list their equities on the US stock exchange, the US listed stock is a depositary receipt representing beneficial ownership of one ordinary share, while the one in Stockholm is the actual share itself. It varies from company to company but generalising - assuming there is a decent daily volume and reasonable bid-offer spread (which there should be for a company of that size) -  I'd generally prefer to buy the actual share on its own domestic European exchange, rather than buy a US depositary receipt representing the share but trading on NYSE during US business hours.  But as the company deliberately supports and sponsors its shares being  available to international investors via US ADRs, with millions of shares traded there every day, you don't really need to let the fact it's an ADR bother you too much - it's still a legitimate route to investing in the company.

As I have more US stocks than scandinavian ones in my portfolio, if I was buying through a broker that let me have a multicurrency cash account I might have a preference for buying it in dollars just because I might be more likely to have dollars in my account from selling something else. Though if you're buying through HL, they don't don't offer multicurrency accounts and are just going to convert your pounds into NOK or USD at the time you place the trade, and load the fx rate with the same percentage charge for either currency, so that wouldn't seem to be an issue. And actually EQNR has higher daily volume on NYSE (leading to slightly lower spread between buy and sell prices). There may be a nominal periodic charge from the ADR depositary but it would be immaterial. A further consideration is that if you change brokers in the future, there are more UK brokers offering trading on the NYSE market than offer Oslo, just because the US markets are really popular with investors this side of the pond while the Norwegian exchange is relatively quite small.

So, probably doesn't make a lot of difference which venue you buy it on. 'Whichever is cheapest' might be a good rule of thumb if you don't care about whether or not you will be able to trade it in the morning UK time.

RSharkR said:

Can anybody help with this?

Looking on the bright side the stock is now down to about NOK 126.5 from NOK131 on the day you first asked the question, so you've made a useful saving of ~4%  by not being assertive about which one to buy.

[Deleted User]

bowlhead99 said:

RSharkR said:

Thanks. From a UK share buyer's point of view there's no dis/advantage of one over the other?

RSharkR said:

Can anybody help with this?

Looking on the bright side the stock is now down to about NOK 126.5 from NOK131 on the day you first asked the question, so you've made a useful saving of ~4%  by not being assertive about which one to buy.

A refreshing reversal of the aftertiming so prevalent on this forum, eh, bowlhead?

bowlhead99

ZingPowZing said:

bowlhead99 said:

RSharkR said:

Thanks. From a UK share buyer's point of view there's no dis/advantage of one over the other?

RSharkR said:

Can anybody help with this?

Looking on the bright side the stock is now down to about NOK 126.5 from NOK131 on the day you first asked the question, so you've made a useful saving of ~4%  by not being assertive about which one to buy.

A refreshing reversal of the aftertiming so prevalent on this forum, eh, bowlhead?

I don't see that 'aftertiming' is any more widespread a phenomenon on this forum than it ought to be be. On a community with over a million user accounts you're literally the only person to have used the phrase in the last half decade.

ColdIron

Aftertiming. I haven't seen the phrase used much since it was a common accusation on the Betfair forums, when they were worth reading, over a decade ago

A brief search reveals I used it myself in 2014

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/67217551/#Comment_67217551

Just an idle observation