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Another Worldwide Record In Trading Volume At Eurex: More Than 50 Million Contracts Traded In A Single Month For The First Time

Date 01/02/2001

Eurex, the international derivatives market, set another worldwide record in trading volume in January: With a total of 53.5 million contracts traded, the world market leader topped its previous record volume of 44.9 million contracts traded in May 2000. The Eurex total in January was 33 percent higher than the number traded during the same month of last year. It is by far the highest monthly turnover ever achieved on a derivatives exchange.

In the capital market products, a new record was set in trading volume at Eurex in January, with a total of 36.6 million contracts traded in this segment (previous record: 29.6 million contracts in May 2000). New all-time highs were achieved in several products: the Bund future, with 16.9 million contracts traded, put in its best monthly performance to date (previous record: 16.4 million contracts in June 1999). The Bobl future, with some 9 million contracts traded, surpassed its previous record of 6.3 million contracts from January 2000 by 42 percent. The Schatz future also set a new record with 7.8 million contracts traded (previous record: 4.9 million contracts in September 2000). New monthly highs were also recorded in options on the Schatz future, with 485,000 contracts traded in January (previous record: 267,000 contracts in May 2000), and on the Bobl future with 470,000 contracts traded (previous record: 306,000 contracts in October 1997).

A new record in trading volume was also achieved in the stock options with more than 10.2 million contracts traded in January, surpassing the previous record (9.4 million contracts) set in May 2000. The increase, year on year, was 48 percent. Among the Finnish products, the options on Nokia and Sonera were particularly successful: with more than 886,000 contracts traded, the Nokia option set a new record (previous record: 665,000 contracts in October 2000) and tripled the January 2000 performance in this contract. The option on Sonera also set a new record with 74,000 contracts traded, beating the previous record of 45,000 contracts traded in September by 64 percent.

The index products also did very well in January, with some 6.7 million contracts traded. This was especially due to the derivatives on the DAX and the Dow Jones Euro-STOXX 50, with 3.4 million and 2.4 million contracts traded, respectively. Trading volume in futures and options on the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50 increased 86 percent and 40 percent, respectively, against the January 2000 figures.