The international derivatives exchange Eurex closed out 2008 with a record turnover of more than 2.17 billion contracts, an increase of 14 per cent compared with 1.9 billion contracts in 2
The international derivatives exchange Eurex closed out 2008 with a record turnover of more than 2.17 billion contracts, an increase of 14 per cent compared with 1.9 billion contracts in 2007. This corresponds to a daily average trading volume of 8.5 million contracts, compared with 7.5 million the previous year.
Equity index derivatives had the highest growth rate in 2008 and for the first time became the largest segment; total volume rose by 36 per cent to more than 1 billion contracts, compared with 754 million in 2007. Derivatives on the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index were the largest single product with 432 million futures and 401 million options.
The equity derivatives segment (options and single stock futures) totalled 480 million contracts, an increase of 28 per cent from 375 million in 2007, while the interest rate derivatives segment reached 658 million contracts, down from 771 million.
In December 2008, 117 million contracts were traded, just down from 118 million a year earlier. Equity index derivatives recorded the highest turnover among all product segments last month with 64 million contracts, up from 55 million in December 2007.
The top equity index derivative was the future on the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index with 31 million contracts, a 20 per cent increase from a year earlier, while another 22 million options on the index were traded.
A total of 21.2 million contracts were traded in equity derivatives, compared with 19.7 million a year earlier. Equity options made up 18.7 million contracts and single stock futures 2.5 million. A total of 31 million contracts were traded in the interest rate derivatives segment in December, down from 43.5 million a year earlier.
At the International Securities Exchange, which has been part of Eurex since December 2007, total options contracts traded in 2008 increased 24 per cent from 804 million contracts in 2007 to 1 billion.
The average daily trading volume of all options increased to 4 million contracts from 3.2 million in 2007. In December, the average daily trading volume of US options was 2.7 million contracts – down from 3.1 million in December 2007 – for a total of 58.6 million.
Eurex Repo, which operates Swiss franc and euro repo markets, set new records in December 2008 in its secured money market segment GC Pooling. On December 24 the daily outstanding volume peaked at EUR61.4bn. Average outstanding volume on a monthly basis was at EUR57.8bn, an increase of 153 per cent from EUR22.8bn in December 2007.
Altogether, the Eurex Repo markets grew by 46 per cent in December and reached an average outstanding volume of EUR144.4bn. Comparing average outstanding volumes for the whole year, Euro GC Pooling increased by 200 per cent from EUR13.9bn in 2007 to EUR41.7bn.
The electronic trading platform Eurex Bonds, which rounds out Eurex’s fixed-income product range, traded volumes of EUR4.9bn (single counting) in December, down from EUR9.6bn a year earlier. Last year Eurex Bonds traded a total volume of EUR97.3bn (single counting), compared with EUR145.6bn in 2007.
