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Boerse Stuttgart marked the end of trading for 2012 with its traditional year-end event on 28 December. Representatives of the stock exchange were joined by around a hundred guests from business, politics and society to take stock of the year. Christoph Lammersdorf, CEO of Boerse Stuttgart Holding GmbH, looked back on an eventful year that was marked by the continuing European debt crisis and yet culminated in a year-end DAX rally.
According to the provisional order book figures (including an estimate for the last three trading days of December), aggregate turnover at Boerse Stuttgart amounted to around EUR 90 billion in 2012. Securitised derivatives accounted for almost half of this total (just under EUR 42.5 billion), once again confirming Boerse Stuttgart’s position as Europe’s leader in the trading of securitised derivatives, with a market share of around 65 percent. Boerse Stuttgart also occupies Germany’s top slot in the stock exchange trading of corporate bonds (70 percent market share). This category generated turnover of almost EUR 15 billion, accounting for over half of the total bond volume traded at the Stuttgart Stock Exchange.
“Traded volumes on the European and German stock markets have declined markedly in 2012. The Stuttgart financial market, too, has been affected by this trend, as private market participants have remained extremely circumspect in their investment decisions. Despite the market highs recently attained, such as the all-time high on the MDAX or the four-year peak on the DAX, many private players are still unsure whether the time is right to make increased investments in securities,” explained Christoph Lammersdorf, CEO of Boerse Stuttgart Holding GmbH, in his review of trading year 2012. Despite the difficult market environment, Christoph Lammersdorf went on to say, Boerse Stuttgart had once again taken steps to enhance its services and range of products as a stock exchange oriented towards retail investors. As examples, he mentioned the introduction of EUWAX Gold and the planned extension of trading hours for certain asset classes until 22.00 hours CET (scheduled to take effect in March 2013).
In 2012, as part of its wider social commitment, Boerse Stuttgart again supported a number of worthy projects, including Mitmachen Ehrensache (Participating as a point of honour), a volunteer-work initiative for young people organised by Jugendstiftung Baden-Württemberg (Youth Foundation Baden-Wuerttemberg). Alongside its focus on trading, Boerse Stuttgart has traditionally placed great importance on education. In this vein, Boerse Stuttgart has teamed up with the local governments of Upper, Middle and Lower Franconia to develop target-group-specific curricular materials for trainings and careers in banking. Christoph Lammersdorf commented on the programme: “As a further milestone, January 2013 will mark the introduction of our first set of training modules at all vocational schools in Germany that train junior bankers. The trainee materials that we developed for continuing education institutions and that were rolled out in 2012 are, I am happy to report, already being used intensively by teachers and students throughout the federal State of Baden-Wuerttemberg.”
Looking ahead at 2013, Christoph Lammersdorf took an optimistic view, noting that policy makers had made good progress in containing the European debt crisis. “We can already sense a palpable increase in investor confidence in the financial markets. Thus, it is only a question of time before also private investors re-enter the market in a major way,” said Christoph Lammersdorf. He concluded by expressing his conviction that private investors in particular would stand to benefit from the advantages of Boerse Stuttgart’s securities trading under public law.
