Bond trading shot up in March, with turnover 30.4% higher than in March 2000. The mood on the stock market was partly to blame for the small number of new share issues, but follow-up issues pumped more than ? 6 billion into the primary market, compared to ? 728 million in March 2000. The number of new bond issues rose sharply, with just short of ? 6.5 billion in bonds admitted to listing.
Sharply fluctuating prices resulted in a busy month at Euronext Amsterdam's derivatives market, which saw a substantial increase in the number of index options, equity options and futures contracts traded. Over 5.7 million options and futures were traded, representing a rise of 32.8% compared to March 2000. A total of almost 17 million options and futures were traded during the first quarter of 2001, up 21.4% on the corresponding period last year. There were 15 million open option contracts in March, 21.1% more than in the same period last year.
Exceptional circumstances on the spot market caused the number of pig futures traded on the commodities market to rocket, with turnover soaring 51.4% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.
