The international derivatives exchange Eurex has reported that trading volumes reached 194.6 million contracts last month, an increase of 24.5 per cent from 156.3 million in May 2007, whil
The international derivatives exchange Eurex has reported that trading volumes reached 194.6 million contracts last month, an increase of 24.5 per cent from 156.3 million in May 2007, while the average daily trading volume at Eurex was up from 7.1 million to 9.3 million contracts.
Total trading volumes on Eurex in the first five months of 2008 reached 948.4 million contracts, up more
than 22 per cent from the same period of the previous year, while open interest increased to almost 148 million contracts.
Equity derivatives benefited from the dividend season, according to Eurex, and saw the strongest year on year growth, with trading volumes almost doubling to 87.9 million contracts from 45.9 million a year earlier. Equity options totalled 40.4 million contracts, while single stock futures accounted for the remaining 47.5 million contracts.
In the equity index derivatives segment, 59.3 million contracts were traded, up from 51.9 million in May 2007. The future on the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 reached 20.2 million contracts, and options on the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 grew by 44 per cent to 27.2 million contracts. Futures on DJ Stoxx sector indices benefited surpassed 200,000 contracts in a single month for the first time.
The fixed income derivatives segment saw trading volumes fall to 47.3 million contracts from 58.4 million a year earlier. The Euro-Bund Future remained the most heavily traded product with 19.1 million contracts, followed by 12.7 million contracts for the Euro-Schatz Future and 10.9 million contracts for the Euro-Bobl Future.
At the International Securities Exchange, which has been part of Eurex since the end of last year, US options reached a daily average trading volume of 3.6 million contracts, up 19 per cent from 3 million in May 2007. Total volume increased by almost 14 per cent from 66 million to 75 million contracts.
Eurex Repo, which operates Swiss franc and euro repo markets, set a new record last month with a combined average outstanding volume of EUR128.1bn, including a new record of EUR71.5bn for the euro repo market. The total compares with EUR92.3bn in May 2007. The secured money market segment, Euro GC Pooling, saw its average outstanding volume rise 220 per cent year on year from EUR11.8bn to EUR37.8bn.
The electronic trading platform Eurex Bonds experienced a trading volume of EUR7.1bn (single counting) in May, down from EUR7.4bn the previous month and EUR12.9bn in May 2007.
