According to the order book statistics, Boerse Stuttgart, Germany’s leading exchange for retail investors, recorded just under EUR 7.2 billion of turnover in August 2009, around 16 percent lower than the preceding month. However, although August is traditionally a quieter month, equities put in a strong performance to end around 9 percent up on the previous month and 57 percent up on August 2008 at over EUR 766 million.
“Over the last month, we have seen a substantial increase in our turnover for German and international equities. With the markets rising, investors seem to have taken a greater interest in equities in August. At the same time, they are taking advantage of Boerse Stuttgart’s offer of a zero ask/bid spread on DAX stocks during Xetra trading hours,” notes Oliver Hans, Managing Director of Baden-Wuerttembergische Wertpapierboerse. German equities accounted for the bulk of trading in this area climbing 5 percent on July of this year and almost 67 percent on August 2008 to reach EUR 577 million. International equities totalled EUR 190 million – over 24 percent up on July 2008 and 34 percent year on year.
Compared to the same month in 2008, August 2009 also saw an increase of over 100 percent in investment fund unit trading with turnover ending the month at EUR 347.1 million. This was mainly driven by ETF trading, which showed a year-on-year rise of over 136 percent to reach EUR 280 million.
With government bonds and Pfandbriefe (covered bonds) currently offering very low interest yields, there was renewed strong demand for corporate bonds, which rose over 92 percent on the figure for August 2008 and accounted for almost half of all the bonds traded on the exchange over the last month at just under EUR 1.1 billion. Overall turnover in this asset class stood at EUR 2.3 billion. This means Boerse Stuttgart is also Germany’s leading exchange for retail investor trading in bonds.
Securitised derivatives contributed just over half of total August turnover at approximately EUR 3.7 billion. Trading in leverage products was on par with the preceding month at nearly EUR 1.9 billion, while investment products such as warrants, knock-outs and exotic products together accounted for almost EUR 1.8 billion (down 12 percent on July 2009).