High market volatility leads to increase in August volumes at Eurex Exchange and ISE/Eurex Exchange: KOSPI Product with new record volumes/Eurex Repo: GC Pooling with new all-time high
In August 2011, the international derivatives exchanges of Eurex Group recorded an average daily volume of 13.2 million contracts (Aug. 2010: 7.8 million). Of those, 9.1 million were Eurex Exchange contracts (Aug. 2010: 5.4 million), and 4.1 million contracts (Aug 2010: 2.4 million) were traded at the U.S.-based International Securities Exchange (ISE). The massive growth of 69 percent y-o-y is due to the increasing use of exchange-traded and centrally cleared derivatives in the current market environment, which was driven by high volatility and uncertainty resulting from the European sovereign debt crisis. In total, 210.0 million contracts were traded at Eurex Exchange and 94.8 million at ISE.
At Eurex Exchange, the equity index derivatives segment grew by 122 percent and totaled 123.5 million contracts (Aug. 2010: 55.5 million). The future on the EURO STOXX 50 Index totaled 50.7 million contracts. The option on this blue chip index totaled 52.1 million contracts. Futures on the DAX index recorded 5.3 million contracts while the DAX options reached another 8.2 million contracts. The Eurex KOSPI Product achieved a new monthly record with almost 2.5 million contracts, an ADV of 108,000 contracts. On 4 August, a new daily peak was recorded with around 208,000 contracts.
The equity derivatives (equity options and single stock futures) segment at Eurex Exchange reached 30.9 million contracts (Aug. 2010: 25.0 million). Thereof, equity options totaled 25.6 million contracts and single stock futures equaled 5.3 million contracts. Equity derivatives volume y-o-y is influenced by the change of contract specifications: In Q1 2011, Eurex Exchange increased the contract size of most equity options and single stock futures to match international standards, with the effect of potentially lower turnover in these products. The adjusted figure of monthly volume in the equity derivatives segment in August would have been approximately 37 million contracts based on an extrapolation.
Eurex Exchange’s interest rate derivatives segment grew by 51 percent and totaled 54.4 million contracts (Aug. 2010: 38.5 million). The Euro-Bund-Future reached 20.5 million contracts, the Euro-Bobl-Future 12.3 million contracts and the Euro-Schatz-Future 13.8 million contracts. The Euro-BTP-Future totaled 226,000 contracts and the Short Term Euro-BTP-Future around 37,000 contracts.
The Eurex segment dividend-based derivatives totaled 782,000 contracts – a new monthly record. Volatility derivatives also had an all-time record month with around 289,000 contracts.
Eurex Repo, which operates CHF, EUR repo and GC Pooling markets, achieved new records in the EUR Repo and GC Pooling market. The EUR Repo Market totaled an average outstanding volume of 164.1 billion euros in August, an increase of 39 percent y-o-y. The secured money market GC Pooling recorded a new monthly peak with an average outstanding volume of 133.4 billion euros, an increase of 46 percent y-o-y (Aug 2010: 91.6 billion euros). The CHF Repo market reached 92.5 billion euros. All Eurex Repo markets recorded 256.6 billion euros average outstanding volume (Aug 2010: 261.5 billion euros).
The electronic trading platform Eurex Bonds, which rounds out Eurex’s fixed-income product range, traded 9.1 billion euros (single counting) in Aug, an increase of 41 percent y-o-y (Aug. 2010: 6.4 billion euros). In July 2011, volume was 9.1 billion euros.
