The Exchange traded a record 216 million contracts, representing an increase of 65% on last year's total of 131 million contracts and surpassing the previous floor-based annual volume record of 209.4 million contracts, set in 1997.
A record €154 trillion (£96/$138 trillion) approximately worth of contracts was traded on LIFFE CONNECT™, LIFFE's electronic trading platform, during 2001, up 58% on the previous year. During 2001 the Exchange traded an average daily nominal value of €603 billion (£375/$539 billion). LIFFE continues to maintain its position as the largest exchange by value in Europe, and the second largest in the world.
Open interest totalled 14.5 million contracts on 17 December 2001, an all-time record.
LIFFE's short-term interest rate contracts and equity products showed strong growth during the year. Volume in LIFFE's short-term interest rate contracts rose 65% and LIFFE's equity products were up 59% on 2000, with individual equity options up 96%.
John Foyle, LIFFE's Deputy Chief Executive said: "It has been an eventful year for LIFFE, dominated, of course, by the Euronext deal. For the half-year to end-June, profits were 43% up as a result of strong trading volumes, fueled by extended global access to LIFFE's market.
Our LIFFE Market Solutions business made a strong start towards realising the commercial value of LIFFE CONNECT™, our other technology assets and our expertise and experience in operating and developing markets.
Deals were struck with Nasdaq, to form a new market in the US to trade single stock futures on LIFFE CONNECT™; with Old Mutual Services to use LIFFE CONNECT™ as the trading system for its Market Touch venture and with Tokyo's TIFFE, which chose LIFFE CONNECT™ as its next generation trading system. In addition we will be working with Euronext's existing derivatives markets to move them on to LIFFE CONNECT™.
We developed and launched three new product ranges: our Universal Stock Futures, the Swapnote® suite of contracts and weather futures. These have all been welcomed by the market and further reinforce our commitment to offer our customers the broadest range of financial and non-financial products of any electronic market. Today, customers access our market through LIFFE's global network from a record number of 493 sites in 25 countries around the world. The majority of sites are located outside the UK and, in total, provide wider distribution than any other electronic trading system in the world."
Brian Williamson, LIFFE's Chairman said: "The Euronext deal is good for LIFFE, for London and for Europe. It will give the customers of both exchanges access to a wider range of products through a strong technology. It is good for London because it brings greater volumes and is good for Europe because the combined exchange will be highly competitive, stronger and more influential.
Our first objective in the New Year will be to plan the integration of both exchanges' derivatives business." LIFFE had a record December in 2001 trading 13.4 million contracts, up 33% on December 2000. Open interest stood at more than 11.2 million contracts at the close of trading on December 31, 2001.
