Eurex: Eurex Turns Over 78 Million Contracts In May - Trading Volume 31.5 Percent Higher Year On Year - Eurex Bonds Shows 54 Percent Increase In Volume Year On Year - Record Results In French Equity Options

Eurex, the international derivatives market, traded and cleared over 78 million contracts in May. The world's leading derivatives exchange posted a 31.5 percent increase in volume for the month compared with May 2002. During the first five months of the year 2003, the market participants, who are connected to Eurex worldwide from 650 locations, turned over a total of some 422 million contracts, 40 percent more than during the same period of the previous year.

The fixed-income products were the highest-turnover segment in May with 45 million contracts traded, representing the largest share of the total volume at Eurex. The Euro-Bund future was the most successful product, with 19.5 million contracts traded, 38 percent higher than in May the year before. Volume of 12.5 million contracts was traded in the Euro-Bobl future, increasing 32 percent compared with May 2002. The volume in Euro-Schatz futures, with 8.5 million contracts traded, was slightly lower than the May 2002 level.

Eurex Bonds, the electronic trading platform that rounds out the Eurex offerings in the fixed-income segment, showed another rise in trading activity by its market participants in May 2003: With 13.3 billion euros in turnover (single counting), Eurex Bonds showed an increase of some 54 percent from the May 2002 figure (8.6 billion euros).

In equity-based derivatives, some 32 million contracts were traded at Eurex in May, comprising 18.6 million contracts in the equity-index derivatives segment and 14.7 million contracts in the equity options segment. The turnover in equity-index derivatives rose 55 percent year on year. The leading contract in equity-index derivatives in May was the futures contract on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 index, with 7.7 million contracts traded, nearly twice the number traded in May 2002 (95 percent growth in volume). Volume in the option on the DJ Euro STOXX 50 index rose 85 percent to 4.3 million contracts. Among the equity options at Eurex, the option on Allianz was the strongest contract in May, with some 1.8 million contracts traded.

In the equity options segment, Dutch and French equity options showed high growth rates again in May: The world's leading equity options exchange turned over 458,000 option contracts in Dutch equities, roughly five times as many as in May 2002, achieving a market share of about 10 percent of the total market in Dutch equity options. In the French equity options at Eurex, with a record result of 95,000 contracts traded (previous record, 85,000 contracts traded in March 2003), volume for the month grew more than sixfold from the year before. Eurex thus achieved a market share of 10 percent of the total market in French equities, measured in terms of the nominal value of the equity options traded (the nominal value of the transactions).