BM&F: 1 Million Contracts Traded Daily In 2006

The average volume of contracts traded daily at BM&F rose during the first months of this year in comparison to the previous year. Taking into account the months of January and February, the average is 1.043 million contracts traded daily this year, in contrast to an average of 794.9 thousand in 2005 – a growth of 31.31%.

In January 2006, 1.057 million contracts were traded daily, on average, (during the same period in 2005, the average was 661.1 thousand); in February this year, the average was 1.028 million contracts traded every day (in February 2005, the average was 670.7 thousand). An increase was also registered in open interest: the volume rose from 10.278 million on the last day of 2005 to 10.859 million on the last trading day in February of 2006, a 5.65% growth.

Agricultural derivatives traded at the Exchange also increased in comparison from 2005 to 2006. This year 4,309 contracts were traded daily, on average, in contrast to 4, 264 in 2005 – a growth of 1.06%. The number of open interests in this segment rose 13.23%: from 44,559 open interests at the end of 2005 to 50,453 at the end of February 2006.