Eurex on Continuing Upward Trend in May

The Eurex derivatives market is posting further increases in trading volume: 28.8 million contracts were traded in May. This represents an increase of about 60 percent over the number traded in May 1998 according to Eurex statistics. Total contract volume exceeded 139 million contracts during the first five months of 1999, about 50 million contracts more than the number traded during the same period of last year. In terms of average daily volume, Eurex set a new record in May. With 1.51 million contracts traded per day, the derivatives market even topped its previous record of 1.46 million contracts traded per day in March 1999. The statistics for the month show that the BUND future was the highest-volume product at Eurex with 11.9 million contracts traded, up 107 percent from the volume posted in May 1998. The BUND future thus retained its position as the world's most heavily traded futures contract in May. Trading in options on the BUND future was also extremely active again in May. With over two million contracts traded, this volume was 656 percent higher in comparison to the same month of last year. The favorable trend in trading on the Dow Jones Euro-STOXX 50 at Eurex is continuing. The derivatives market shows a volume of 518,000 contracts traded in futures and options in May 1999, an increase of 156,000 contracts over the April figure. During the first quarter, an average of 16,700 contracts were traded at Eurex per day. Over 27,000 contracts were already being traded on a daily average in May.